I received a notification for managers today from the Employee Access Program (EAP). This is a program offered by most companies through a third party to offer free help and counseling for a variety of personal issues.
I think we all know what absenteeism means, but I learned a new word in this update:
presenteeism - the practice of employees coming to work while sick or adversely affected by emotional distress. When applied to remote workers, presenteeism is sometimes referred to as "e-presenteeism."
Let's start with traditional in-office jobs. I'm sure management tells employees to stay home if they are sick, especially if they might be contagious. No one wants to work next to sick people at the office. Why would an employee come into work sick?
I blame the change most companies made from tracking separate buckets of sick and vacation time to combining all time off into one bucket of hours called paid time off (PTO). In the previous model, one could take sick days without risking any loss of vacation days. In the new PTO model, any day off for being sick takes away from potential days off for vacation. The zero-sum game encourages people to minimize taking days off due to being sick.
The same mindset applies to remote work, although it's easier to work from home when you're not quite at 100% compared to trudging into an office.
Are there days where I'm not feeling 100%? Sure. I work anyway. The individual has to make that decision whether he or she is feeling good enough or just cannot work and take the appropriate time off.
I think we all know what absenteeism means, but I learned a new word in this update:
presenteeism - the practice of employees coming to work while sick or adversely affected by emotional distress. When applied to remote workers, presenteeism is sometimes referred to as "e-presenteeism."
Let's start with traditional in-office jobs. I'm sure management tells employees to stay home if they are sick, especially if they might be contagious. No one wants to work next to sick people at the office. Why would an employee come into work sick?
I blame the change most companies made from tracking separate buckets of sick and vacation time to combining all time off into one bucket of hours called paid time off (PTO). In the previous model, one could take sick days without risking any loss of vacation days. In the new PTO model, any day off for being sick takes away from potential days off for vacation. The zero-sum game encourages people to minimize taking days off due to being sick.
The same mindset applies to remote work, although it's easier to work from home when you're not quite at 100% compared to trudging into an office.
Are there days where I'm not feeling 100%? Sure. I work anyway. The individual has to make that decision whether he or she is feeling good enough or just cannot work and take the appropriate time off.
