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HR Glossary

Presenteeism

HR metrics
What is presenteeism?

Presenteeism is being at work while unwell, exhausted or disengaged and producing well below normal capacity. It is the hidden counterpart to absenteeism, and most estimates put its cost higher, because it affects more people for longer while remaining invisible in attendance data.

Why presenteeism costs more than absenteeism

An absent employee produces nothing for a day and the gap is visible, so it gets covered. A present-but-struggling employee produces a fraction of normal output for weeks, makes more errors, and slows the people around them, all while the dashboard shows full attendance. Because nothing flags it, nothing manages it, and the loss compounds quietly.

What drives it?

Sick people coming in anyway (culture, workload guilt, insecure work), mental health strain, chronic conditions managed badly by the job design, and disengagement, the version where the person quit months ago but is still attending. Casual and insecure workers face the sharpest version: no paid leave means working sick is an income decision, not a commitment signal.

How do you measure something invisible?

Imperfectly but usefully: self-reported capacity questions in engagement surveys, error and rework rates, and the gap between attendance and output in teams under strain. The estimate matters less than the order of magnitude; even conservative assumptions (a modest share of staff at reduced output) produce a number that changes how seriously wellbeing and workload design get taken.

Next step

Calculator

Presenteeism Cost Calculator

Put a number on it. Free, no sign-up, every benchmark sourced.

Open the calculator →Related term

Absenteeism

Absenteeism is the pattern of unplanned absence from work, beyond approved leave taken as intended.

Read the definition →Related term

Employee engagement

Employee engagement is the emotional commitment an employee has to their organisation and its goals, visible as discretionary effort: caring about the outcome, not just completing the task.

Read the definition →Related term

Psychosocial hazards

Psychosocial hazards are aspects of work design, management or workplace interactions that can cause psychological harm, such as excessive job demands, low support or bullying.

Read the definition →HR Glossary

All terms

Every definition, with the local rules, rates and thresholds attached.

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Where
Compono Engage fits.

Compono Engage is an employee engagement platform that reads culture and climate alongside work personality, team by team.

You cannot see presenteeism in a roster. You can see it in engagement data.

See how it works
Compono Engage
8%+
reduction in turnover

Common questions

Is presenteeism just low productivity?

No. It is reduced capacity with an identifiable cause: illness, strain or disengagement. The distinction matters because the fixes are workload, health and engagement interventions, not performance management.

Does encouraging sick people to stay home increase absence costs?

It shifts cost from hidden to visible, and usually shrinks it: one person absent for two days beats a team infected for two weeks, in both output and goodwill.

This page is general information, not legal advice. We check figures annually and update them on a best-efforts basis, but employment rules change and we cannot promise everything here is current or complete. Before you act on it, confirm the detail with the official source for your jurisdiction or your own adviser. Last reviewed July 2026.