You left your house in the morning, arrived at work. You said "good morning" to your coworkers, grabbed a cup of tea or coffee, and sat down at your desk. Are you at work? Yes. But are you really at work? Are you truly present with all your mind and soul? No.

Let's consider another scenario. You have a headache, you're sick, you feel nauseous, or you're constantly sneezing due to allergies. But you still got up in the morning and came to work. Because if you don’t go to work, tasks pile up, and when you return, you are faced with a heavy workload from all the tasks that have accumulated. Or your coworkers aren't forgiving when you're absent, and they complain about having to do the tasks you’re responsible for. Or you think taking sick leave will risk your promotion opportunities. Or your manager has an allergy to the words “sickness” and “leave.” Or there’s excessive competition in your workplace. Or there’s no one else who can do your job when you're not around. There could be many more reasons.

This situation is called “presenteeism” in the literature. In 1998, Cooper defined the concept of presenteeism as “the condition where an employee comes to work despite being sick.” Another definition is “the situation where an employee is present in the workplace but is not sufficiently productive or effective.” Does this sound familiar?

According to Cooper, particularly in the late 1990s, managers created a “workaholic culture” in organizations; the belief that “the more time employees spend at work, the more productive they are – the longer the better” influenced the emergence of presenteeism. We may immediately think of managers like Miranda from the movie "The Devil Wears Prada."

So, is this a healthy situation?

Of course not. Just being at work or showing up despite being sick is not healthy. On the contrary, it can lead to results like decreased performance, lowered motivation, and inefficiency.

Since your energy is already low when you're sick, your performance and concentration decline. A task that you could normally finish in 1 hour might take you 3 hours to complete. If you work in high-risk jobs, such as banking, credit transactions, or on a production line, you might make significant mistakes or even cause accidents.

In order for your tasks to be completed, your coworkers step in to support your work, which leads to a decrease in overall performance. And considering the risk of spreading your illness... There is also the possibility that your relationships with your coworkers and manager, who might say “the whole team got sick because of you,” could deteriorate.

Our advice on this matter is that, of course, you should not go to work when you're sick. Discuss the situation with your manager, request sick leave, and ask for support from your coworkers. If you go to work even when you're sick or just to be physically present at the workplace but are not productive or effective during the day, it would be beneficial to think it over in detail. Is your work environment not supportive? What’s going wrong? What are the stressors that are making you distant and disengaged from work? Are you afraid of the workload? Is the corporate culture not tolerant or understanding? Is there excessive competition in the organization that resembles something out of "Game of Thrones"? Recognizing and wanting to change the factors that bother you will be the first step towards a solution.