Presenteeism

Most organizations only offer their employees a certain number of paid sick days per year. Unfortunately for Dominic, he burned through all of his sick days about two months ago, which means that, even though he’s got a migraine that could drop a horse, he’s got to go into the office today. But even though he’s physically there, that doesn’t mean he’s going to be performing at 100%. This phenomenon is known as “presenteeism”: an employee shows up to work, but isn’t all that productive due to illness, a medical condition, or some other health factor.

We all have off days, and like it or not, we’ve all had to go to school or work on days when we’re not feeling our best. It's what it is, right? Things need to get done. But the fact that this presenteeism can have a negative effect on a company’s productivity shouldn’t really come as a huge shocker. For example, let’s say it usually takes Dominic an hour to process twenty invoices. With a migraine, however, he’s only able to get through about ten every hour. That’s a 50% reduction in productivity, which could potentially impact his organization’s financial bottom line. On the plus side, though, that’s still ten more invoices per hour than he would’ve gotten done if he was home in bed with an ice pack on his forehead. Looks like, in some cases, presenteeism is still preferable to its cousin: absenteeism.