By Amanda Willis and Gaynor Parkin, Photo: Peopleimages/Getty Images, The Guardian, November 29, 2021
Consider a construction worker who hasn’t slept more than four hours a night for the past week, a software engineer who is battling a persistent cold but keeps working from their home office, and a schoolteacher who worries about their students so shows up each day despite feeling emotionally burned out.
What do they have in common? Presenteeism, otherwise known as the act of working while unwell – physically, emotionally, or mentally.
To be perfectly forthright, presenteeism – like burnout – is most often an individual response to a systemic problem. Few of us would prefer to be at work when we feel like garbage. Addressing presenteeism involves addressing poor management, toxic workplace cultures, and socioeconomic trends and inequities that force people to prioritise hours worked over their own health and that of their colleagues.
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