Most bosses in most workplaces track absenteeism carefully to ensure that employees are being as productive as possible.
But you certainly don't hear the same thing being said about presenteeism - in fact, I'd never heard the term until I read Desjardins Financial Security's national health survey, which was released last week.
The presenteeism survey found that 42 per cent of Canadian workers went to work sick or exhausted at least once in 2007. And of those workers, 29 per cent admitted to working while ill three to five times, 11 per cent from six to 10 times and 12 per cent admitted to going to work sick more than 10 times.
The reasons most often mentioned by respondents include:
- Looming deadlines, 61 per cent
- Preventing workload pile up, 55 per cent
- Not wanting colleagues to be overloaded, 49 per cent
- Concern about missing work being frowned upon, 41 per cent
- Simply not being able to miss the income, 40 per cent
The survey found that nine of 10 workers believe that the incidences of stress-related mental-health problems, such as burnout, depression and anxiety, have been increasing over the years.
It also found that workplaces appear to be gradually adapting to mental-health challenges in their businesses. Nearly two-thirds of workers think that their employer's senior management is concerned about employee wellness and four of 10 believe that management is showing that they are ready to listen or are open to discussing issues with their employees.
