Teleworking While Sick: A Three-Wave Study of Psychosocial Safety Climate, Psychological Demands, and Presenteeism.

Caroline Biron,Claude Fernet,Hans Ivers,Sandra Salvoni,Maria Karanika-Murray

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.734245

Abstract

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a significant increase in the proportion of employees for whom teleworking became mandatory. Presenteeism, or the behavior of working while ill, has hardly been studied in the context of telework. The pandemic forced millions of workers to abruptly transition to working from home for a prolonged period of time, leaving employers often unaware of their health status or work capacity of the workers. This change also eroded the work experience itself, the workplace, and their protective impact on both individual health and work outcomes. This study focused on the longitudinal relationships among psychosocial safety climate (PSC), a lead indicator of workplace conditions, psychological demands, an indicator of quality of work, and presenteeism among a representative sample of teleworkers. PSC was expected to have an indirect impact on presenteeism with psychological demands as a mediator of this impact.Method: We collected the data from a representative sample of teleworkers in the first months (T1: April, T2: June, and T3: December 2020) of the pandemic using a three-wave online survey (n = 275). We tested a model of PSC as a determinant of presenteeism in teleworkers with psychological demands as a mediator. A cross-lagged panel model was estimated to test cross-sectional and longitudinal relationships.Findings: As expected, psychological demands increased over time. Contrary to expectations, the prevalence of presenteeism remained unchanged while PSC increased over time. The data fully supported the mediating effect of psychological demands such that a higher evaluation of PSC at T1 led to lower psychological demands at T2, which led to reduced presenteeism at T3. We also found a reciprocal relationship, with higher psychological demands at T2 leading to decreased evaluation of PSC at T3. These results show that the perception of teleworkers on their organization as giving a high priority to their psychological health is an important determinant of their work experience, ultimately influencing their decision to work while ill. The context of the pandemic has highlighted the importance of a positive workplace climate and working conditions for reducing the behaviors that can be harmful to health and productivity. Implications for theory and practice, beyond the pandemic, are discussed.

Highlights

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a significant increase in the proportion of employees for whom teleworking became mandatory
The main thrust of this paper is to investigate the reality of teleworkers who primarily worked from home throughout the pandemic
Using a three-wave cross-lagged panel design in a large, representative population sample, our data on teleworkers who primarily worked from home throughout the first 10 months of the COVID-19 pandemic showed a constant increase in psychological demands and an unchanged prevalence of presenteeism

Summary

Introduction

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a significant increase in the proportion of employees for whom teleworking became mandatory. The pandemic forced millions of workers to abruptly transition to working from home for a prolonged period of time, leaving employers often unaware of their health status or work capacity of the workers. This change eroded the work experience itself, the workplace, and their protective impact on both individual health and work outcomes. The proportion of workers who predominantly work from home varies depending on the context and nature of work, but it increased dramatically in several countries during the pandemic. During the pandemic, 34% of the workforce worked from home full-time across all sectors and occupations (Eurofound, 2020)

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Results

Conclusion