May 08, 2022 23:00:00

Why do people try to work even when they are sick?

When you get sick and feel sick, your work performance does not improve, and even though you know that you should take a rest quietly when you think about the next day or later, there are people who push the illness and work. Studies of this phenomenon, called '

presenteeism ,' have shown that people work with illness when they are unable to meet their 'daily work quota.'

Should I stay or should I go? The role of daily presenteeism as an adaptive response to perform at work despite somatic complaints for employee effectiveness. --PsycNET
https://doi.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2Focp0000322

New research sheds fresh light on the '800-pound gorilla' of presenteeism --Trinity News and Events
https://www.tcd.ie/news_events/articles/research-from-trinity-business-school-sheds-new-light-on-the-800-pound-gorilla-of-presenteeism/

There's at Least One Major Reason Why People Show Up to Work Sick, Study Finds
https://www.sciencealert.com/study-highlights-a-major-reason-why-people-continue-to-work-when-they-re-ill

Presenteeism that pushes illness to work may seem like a devoted act of loyalty to work and bosses, but it also leads to problems such as illness epidemics, reduced productivity, and burnout in the workplace. increase. Psychologists in the field of occupational health are concerned about presenteeism because this adversely affects the workplace and incurs additional costs.

So a research team led by Wladislaw Rivkin, a psychologist at Trinity College Dublin in Ireland, surveyed people working remotely, 'Why do workers engage in presenteeism?'

Rivkin et al. Recruited 126 subjects from various professions such as IT, education, and finance, and collected data such as daily productivity, health status, work goals, and working hours over 12 business days. This survey was conducted when a pandemic of the new coronavirus infection (COVID-19) occurred in 2020 and all participants were doing remote work.

Analysis of the data revealed that workers engaged in presenteeism only 'when their daily work quotas were not met.' We also found that employees who worked despite their illness exhausted their mental energy and adversely affected their performance the next day.

It is said that pushing illness to work requires more mental power to ignore the danger signal emitted by the body, so more mental energy is consumed. 'You may think it's good to work even if you're sick to reach your work goals, but in our research, presenteeism consumes employees' mental energy. However, it has been found to have a chain effect on the performance of remote workers the next day, as it cannot be fully recovered after work. '

From the findings, the research team argues that managers should take proactive steps to discourage employee presenteeism. 'Managers need to openly thwart presenteeism by reducing their daily work goals when team members feel unwell and reassuring them that they are allowed to focus on recovering their health,' the study said. The team insisted.

In addition, Science Alert of the scientific media pointed out that 'not achieving the quota of work' is not the only reason for presenteeism, but also for financial reasons.