Yahoo News Presenteeism: Thinking about nipping into the office for an hour today? Don't..
Ah, the last Bank Holiday of the summer: a good chance to nip into the office while it’s empty to catch up on a bit of work before the back-to-school rush. Except, it isn’t, really.
Research at the Sainsbury Centre of Mental Health suggests that presenteeism – the need to be at work outside of working hours – is an even bigger problem than absenteeism. Professor Sir Cary Cooper at Manchester University has referred to it as the biggest threat to UK workplace productivity, costing the UK economy almost twice as much as absenteeism.
What are the causes and consequences of this widespread practice?
For the company, presenteeism may seem beneficial. In the longer term, however, any such benefit is more than cancelled out
When Claus Hansen and Johan Andersen, at Harning Hospital in Denmark, interviewed almost 13,000 workers, they found the factors most strongly associated with presenteeism are: long working hours, a small intimate work force, and an over-commitment to work.
Gunnar Aronsson at the National Institute for Working Life in Stockholm interviewed over 3,800 workers and found those in the educational sector and caring professions are most at risk, particularly if staffing levels and pay are low, and if it’s difficult to find a stand-in when someone is ill. Other studies add job insecurity and lack of managerial support to the list of risk factors.
The consequences of presenteeism are detrimental both to the company and to individual employees. For the company, presenteeism may seem beneficial (employees are putting in extra hours for free). In the longer term, however, any such benefit is more than cancelled out.
Gunnar Bergstrom and colleagues at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm interviewed more than 5,000 workers and found presenteeism (which they defined as going to work despite being ill more than five days in one year) resulted in poorer health generally, as well as a significantly increased risk of more than 30 days sick leave in future. Evangelina Demerouti at the University of Utrecht, who interviewed 258 nurses, points out that presenteeism creates a vicious circle: the more exhausted employees become, the more likely they are to try to compensate – and as a result, the more vulnerable they are to further illness.
Despite this overwhelming evidence, most companies ignore or overlook presenteeism. What should they do instead?
Managers should offer regular confidential meetings with their employees and allow them to talk freely about workload and other issues that impinge on their wellbeing. They should respond by offering practical support and suggestions.
They should offer regular seminars – as part of paid working time – when employees meet together to learn practical ways not only to manage problems such as anxiety, sleep disturbance and chronic pain, but also to learn ways to enhance general wellbeing.
Wherever possible, they should set up a “buddy system”, so each employee has someone familiar with their workload who can cover for them if they’re feeling unwell.
These practices cost money to create and maintain, but the investment will pay off handsomely. Companies that promote employee wellbeing will in the long run outperform any whose managers emphasise only productivity.
This autumn, make it a priority to campaign for such practices in your place of work.
• Linda Blair is a clinical psychologist. To order her book, The Key to Calm (Hodder & Stoughton), for £12.99 plus p&p, call 0844 871 1514 or visit books.telegraph.co.uk. To watch her, go to telegraph.co.uk/wellbeing/ video/mind-healing
