The Real Cost of “Presenteeism” (i.e. showing up when you’re sick)

by Jane-Michele Clark

Swallowing slices open your throat, congested sinuses trip hammer in your head and you can hardly croak out your name to answer your office phone. Yet you do, because you have dragged your sorry self into work – even though your bed was calling you back to its comforting sanctuary.

Whatever happened to the days when we faked a cold to get out of going to school?!

According to several studies they are gone – long gone. As reported by L.M. Sixel of the Houston Chronicle News Service (13/12/2006), “according to the study of human resource executives, 66 percent of sick employees come to work because they're worried about missing important deadlines, while 56 percent have no one to cover for them… Another problem: 25 percent report their company cultures discourage them from calling in sick.”

So why is this a problem? Aren’t companies trying to decrease absenteeism? Maybe. But their real goal is to optimize productivity and profitability.

Sick employees are less effective than healthy ones and far more likely to make mistakes According to Dr. Peter Ainsley, “a sick employee is about as effective as one whose had a 3-martini lunch – and twice as likely to mess up.” Yet, they keep showing up at work, spreading their germs and costing their employers money – all in a misguided attempt to honour their work commitments.

In 2004, an extensive study showed that “work slowdowns caused by illness on the job, known as "presenteeism," may account for up to 60% of employer health costs” and that “the costs of presenteeism were far greater than other employer-related health care costs, such as absenteeism or health and disability benefits.” (Goetzel, R. Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, April 2004; vol 46. News release, Cornell University.)

Eventually though, the sick ones succumb and stay home – often taking others with them. On average, for every day that a person shows up at work sick, there are four other related worker absences. And absenteeism costs have been rising inexorably over the past decade. According to Statistics Canada, absenteeism costs employers in excess of 15 billion dollars a year.

How can that be you ask? 4 main reasons:

1) Decreased Productivity
• Employees who have to pick up others’ slack get behind on their own work
• Training or orienting temporary workers reduces time regular employees can devote to their own work
• Returning employees take time to catch-up and gear-up again
• If a large number of people get sick, or the cold cycles through a department, morale and output can drop by as much as 30%, according to M. Browning, a researcher at St. Mary’s Hospital.

2) Lost Opportunity Costs
• At a time when knowledge workers are a highly valued corporate asset, every day’s absence can have a serious impact on future losses.

3) Financial Impact
• Lower output potential
• Insurance premiums may rise
• Potential overtime for healthy employees
• Cost of temporary workers on top of the sick person’s salary

4) Admin/ HR Costs
• Documentation of absences
• Staff redeployment
• Securing temporary staff; building a pool of casual workers


So what can you do to cut down on the germ spreading – and on the costs associated with absenteeism?

As an employer:

• Send sick people home. If they have a rattling cough, are sneezing and/or are running a fever, they need to be at home. In bed. Not working. End of story.

• Don’t hurry people back to work after a day or two – they are still run down, and likely still contagious. Let them work from home for a couple of days.

• Pay for knowledge employees and other key staff to have laptops with wireless connections at home – make it possible for them to keep up while keeping their germs away.

• As appropriate, create teams (or partnerships) so that it is easy for someone to cover the tasks normally undertaken by an absent employee.

• Provide hand sanitizers, Kleenex for people’s desktops and paper towels for the kitchen (rather than cloth tea towels).

• Institute a health & wellness program at work and reward healthy habits.

• Choose a health plan that covers vitamin and mineral supplements

• Make sure your heating and ventilation system are providing adequate fresh air so the germs don’t just keep recirculating. (Note: SolarWall’s transpired solar collector offers an excellent means to improve a building’s indoor air quality, while helping to reduce heating cost and reduce greenhouse gas emissions – and there are government grants to offset its installation.)

As an employee:

• If you’re sick, stay home! You’ll get better faster than if you go in.

• Stay in bed drinking fluids and resting for the first couple of days. Don’t work and don’t do household chores.

• While at work, wash your hands frequently. Use a hand sanitizer (lots of nasty germs live on doorknobs, phones and desktops).

• Wash your coffee cup right away; don’t let it sit in a sink where it can come into contact with someone else’s cold germs.

• Sounds kind of obvious, but… avoid sick people. If your colleague is hacking and sneezing at lunch, sit elsewhere.

• Starting to feel run down, as though you may be on the verge of getting a cold? Take care of yourself and you may be able to keep it at bay. Eat well (fruits, veggies and lean meats) and get to bed early (8 - 10 hours sleep) until you feel 100% again.

Most of all, use common sense. The link between health, productivity and profitability (or promotion) is proven – don’t blow it by going in to work sick.

Copyright @2009 Jane-Michèle Clark. All rights reserved.


Jane-Michèle Clark is president of The Q Group ( www.theQgroup.com ), a strategic positioning and marketing communications firm that has worked with many blue chip companies over the past 30 years. In addition to being seasoned business strategist and marketing expert, Jane-Michèle also teaches MBA level marketing at the top-ranked Schulich School of Business York University). Jane-Michèle is also a corporate trainer and speaker and 9-time nominee for the RBC Canadian Woman Entrepreneur of the Year Award.

Jane-Michèle can be reached at jmc@theQgroup. or by calling 416-424-6644.


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