Interplay of Start-of-workday (SWP) and At-work Presenteeism (AWP): A Daily Diary Study

Abstract

Presenteeism – attending to work in sickness is associated with deleterious effects on individuals and organizations. In the past decade, presenteeism has gained considerable scholarly attention from the researchers and the practitioners worldwide. Nevertheless, how within-person variation in presenteeism affects work outcomes is not very well understood. Drawing on a decision-making theoretical perspective, we develop a model describing the interplay of start-of-workday presenteeism (SWP) and at-work presenteeism (AWP) on daily emotional anxiety, which evokes malicious social emotion of schadenfreude resulting in daily gossip behaviors targeted at the peers and the supervisor. The results from a ten-wave twice-a-day daily diary study with full time working professionals spanning a period of two weeks (N = 59, total matched morning-evening daily observations = 528) provided empirical evidence for the hypothesized model. By studying the dynamics of presenteeism on employee’s daily emotional experiences and social behaviors from a decision-making perspective, we present novel insights to the management and occupational health researchers, as well as the public policy analysts and practitioners.