Presenteeism

Described by Linstead (2011) as working when ill, presenteeism is among the most notable
psychological impacts of the Covid 19 pandemic on employees across the globe. According
to a recent research by Vandenberghe et al., (2020), approximately one fifth of the people
diagnosed with Covid 19 continued to attend to work duties. While most of these worked
from home, they can be categorised into two profiles: employees who are driven into high
work engagement levels by a strong commitment to their organization; and, to a higher
extent, employees compelled to work while sick by heavy job demands such as understaffing,
excessive workload, and overtime requirements. Regardless of organizational policies on
presenteeism, it has further been observed by Murray (2020) that employees tend to imitate
the level of presenteeism exhibited by their direct superiors. Also, notable herein is that
compensation policies during the pandemic should be designed in a manner that they do not
encourage employees to work while sick, nor act as an incentive for supervisors to compel
subordinates to work while sick. However, there is need for further research on how
employees working from home navigate sickness in the post Covid-19 period.