Presenteeism - The new Work-Life balance or wasting company time?

Presenteeism has typically been examined in the context of decreased productivity by employees coming to work sick.  The term is considered the opposite of absenteeism and has received a good deal of attention in the management and human capital realm.  Mostly, presenteeism is considered when studying employees who come to work with the intention of being productive, but cannot be because of illness.  Lately, there has been attention given to employees who come to the office well enough to work but do not because they are engaging in personal business on the job.  Is this part of the new “work-life balance” paradigm as we blur the lines between personal and professional lives?  How much has technology, flexplace/flextime, and amenities such as on-site daycare or fitness centers created “borderless” divisions between work, home, leisure?  And, how much does your organizational culture tolerate this in the name of employee satisfaction, employee development, or innovation?

Tolerance for this work-life boundary crossing is usually part of the organizational culture and rarely part of a formal policy.  This type of culture allows employee autonomy to negotiate these boundaries.  This is a culture that acknowledges, respects, and even supports an employee’s life outside the office.  Research shows allowing a certain amount of presenteeism may be beneficial and indeed some human resource practices acknowledge the need to assist employees in their work-life integration as personal business could cross into the workday.

Studies show employees spending about one hour and twenty minutes in an eight-hour workday engaged in non-work activities.  Qualitative research suggests that non-work related presenteeism may be due to convenience, time constraints, timing, or boredom.  If individuals are engaging in these activities on work time because of such things as boredom, then non-work related presenteeism is indeed a human resources issue.

Presenteeism costs productivity and thus costs a company money.  Alternatively, what of the employee who takes calls at home or after work hours?  These might be the same employees who cross work-life boundaries all day.  Are they practicing presenteeism in their home life?  Should it become an accepted cost of doing business?  And is engaging in non-work related presenteeism a necessary evil for achieving work-life balance?  Is presenteeism the new paradigm for this balance? 

Let me know your organization’s tolerance for presenteeism.

FG

 

D’Abate, C. P. (2005). Working hard or hardly working: A study of individuals engaging in personal business on the job. Human Relations, 58(8), 1009–1032.

D’Abate, C. P. & Eddy, E. R. (2007). Engaging in personal business on the job: Extending the presenteeism construct.  Human Resource Development Quarterly, vol. 18, no. 3, Fall 2007.