Rise in Digital Presenteeism Spurs Great Resignation

Credit: lukasbieri

In today’s business landscape, the Great Resignation isn’t the only problem that hounds employers. A new concern was unearthed by the recent study of Qatalog and Gitlab—digital presenteeism. According to the study, remote employees waste an average of 67 extra minutes per day or 5.5 hours per week (outside working hours) on menial tasks that supposedly prove that they are working. These activities don’t really amount to anything other than posturing.

There are several tasks remote employees turn to when they feel the need to be more visible. Sending or replying to emails is the most relied upon, with 70% of workers admitting to it, followed by sending or replying to instant messages (53%), setting status on work messaging apps to “Active” (52%), and joining team video calls (51%). Employees often feel compelled to perform these since they typically receive a slew of notifications from six different apps.

The physical absence of supervisors has led to employees worrying that their work won’t be noticed or recognized. In fact, 54% of employees admit to feeling pressure to appear productive during certain hours. It doesn’t help that 63% of workers believe that their managers are stuck with the mindset of preserving traditional in-office culture. And the charges leveled against remote and hybrid work by corporate bigwigs like Elon Musk and Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon lend credence to this claim.

Interestingly, an even larger share of C-level executives (68%) is guilty of resorting to digital presenteeism when they feel the need to be present.

As it appears, digital presenteeism is more of a symptom than an actual concern. After all, 81% of the workforce believe that they are more productive and deliver outputs of higher quality when granted flexible working conditions.

Better Employment Conditions Needed

Qatalog and Gitlab’s study reveals that only 33% of employees work asynchronously, implying rigid scheduling for a majority of the workforce, including managers. This inflexibility contributes to digital presenteeism, burnout, motivation loss, and worst of all, the Great Resignation. With the numerous career opportunities found online, the latest recruitment statistics found that 40% of US workers are thinking of leaving their jobs. And many of them do so.

Additionally, a July 2022 McKinsey report shows that the leading reasons of workers for quitting their jobs are the lack of career development (41%), low pay (36%), uncaring leaders (34%), lack of meaningful or fulfilling work (31%), and unsustainable or unrealistic work expectations (29%). Having uncaring leaders, unsustainable expectations, and lack of fulfilling work all point to the inflexibility of organizations, along with other top reasons like lack of workplace flexibility (26%), unsupportive people at work (26%), and lack of support for health and wellbeing (26%). Digital presenteeism can come as an emotional response to any or a combination of the aforesaid conditions.

What’s more, 65% of those who quit their jobs left their industries entirely while 48% entered a different industry. This signals industry-wide problems regarding the aforesaid concerns, including work inflexibility. And resignations are most prevalent in markets like retail (76%), public sector/nonprofit (72%), finance (65%), industrial (64%), and transport and logistics (55%). It comes as no surprise that some of the executives who railed against remote and hybrid work belong to these industries, with Elon Musk having a stake in transport and David Solomon in finance.

As the data suggests, if an organization intends to resolve the rising rate of digital presenteeism, it should strike at its causes rather than imposing a draconian return-to-office mandate. Presenteeism is the least of a company’s concerns amid the threat of losing workers and managers.