Employees who are unwell only engage in presenteeism when they have not met their daily work goals, according to new research from Trinity College Dublin.
The study, published in the Journal of Occupational Health Psychology recently, also found that working on a day when you feel ill drains mental energy which cannot be recovered the next day.
The study seeks to shed further light on the phenomenon of ‘presenteeism’ — defined by the researchers as continuing to work when experiencing ill-health. The practice has been labelled an ‘800-pound gorilla’ by researchers in occupational health psychology because of the tremendous costs it inflicts on employees and organisations alike. These costs include burnout, impaired workability, and productivity loss.
