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Absent-minded workers show signs of presenteeism
Tips for managers
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Another bonus is that companies that have effective health and productivity management programs in place tend to perform better financially, says Ricciuti. “Productivity is the factor that indicates the company has an effective workforce. If you don’t have effective EAP programs, then you get poor performance.”

Brown says companies aren’t cutting back on EAP and other health and wellness programs in the current downturn. “We’re actually surpassing our targets this year. The message is out, and leaders seem to be listening. During hard times, workers need help coping with stress at work and at home.”

Tips for managers
Managers need to look at deviations from usual behavioural patterns to detect workers suffering from presenteeism. “Managers should note changes in their people’s behaviour in the workplace, their physical appearance, negative attitude and quality of work over time so they can say, ‘I noticed you’re missing a lot of deadlines lately,’” says Seward.

This may be a challenge at many downsized organizations, says Anfield. “Many managers have gone from having five reports to 12, so it becomes difficult to really know employees well. But that’s the key to early detection of presenteeism: it’s typically a number of subtle behavioural changes observed over time, not one big ‘Aha!’”

The biggest problem many workers have is admitting they have a problem. “Managers need to be comfortable enough to have that sensitive conversation with an employee about the changes in their behaviour,” says Seward.

Talking to employees about their presenteeism can be a challenge. Open-ended questions should be used in the conversation to get to the heart of the matter, and listening is more important than talking, she says. “Managers should talk to employees about behaviours they’ve observed, and not hypothesize about the cause.”

While employees need to be treated with dignity and can’t be forced to get help, most people are willing to rectify an issue when a manager points it out.

“The key tool for rectifying the situation is calling the EAP number,” Seward says.

Establishing an open door policy will help employees feel more comfortable about approaching managers when personal problems arise that may affect job performance. It can also keep a potential problem from spiralling out of control and growing into a major issue.

But managers also need to set fair and reasonable performance goals. People are less productive when they don't know what's expected of them because they feel lost. Workers may also believe they have no choice but to give up when they think it's impossible to meet the workload demands.

Organizations should also have standards in place defining the amount of overtime employees should work. Some sectors such as accounting firms have a busy period every year during tax season, so larger workloads and long hours are unavoidable. But these companies can still use incentives to keep stress levels down.

“Employers can encourage their staff to schedule a long vacation after the busy season so they have something to look forward to, which helps them cope during the crunch period,” says Seward. 

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Rosie Lombardi is a Toronto-based freelance journalist. You can contact her at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

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