Engaging in personal business on the job: Extending the presenteeism construct

TLDR

Presenteeism describes workers being on the job but not functioning at peak levels due to illness, injury, or other conditions. We argue that presenteeism also occurs when employees engage in personal business during work hours, such as emailing friends, paying bills, or making appointments. A web-based survey of 115 workers found that employees spend roughly 1 h 20 min per day on personal tasks, costing employers about $8,875 per employee annually, and that this behavior is unrelated to self-reported performance, efficiency, job satisfaction, commitment, or retention intentions, but is associated with procrastination.

Abstract

Abstract Presenteeism describes the situation when workers are on the job but, because of illness, injury, or other conditions, they are not functioning at peak levels. Although much of the research on presenteeism appears in the medical literature, we argue that presenteeism also occurs when employees go to work but spend a portion of the workday engaging in personal business while on the job, such as e‐mailing friends, paying personal bills, or making personal appointments. Results of a Web‐based survey of 115 individuals suggest that employees spend approximately one hour and twenty minutes in a typical workday engaged in personal activities, costing their employers an average $8,875 each year in lost productivity per employee. Results suggest that engagement in personal business on the job is not related to self‐reported measures of performance, efficiency, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, or intentions to stay, only to procrastination. Implications of these findings for practice and research are discussed.