Working from home means UK workers are checking emails while sick

Remote and hybrid working is allowing employees to keep working while unwell from home, according to new research from the University of Manchester, National Taiwan University and Soochow University.

The paper argues that traditional definitions of presenteeism no longer reflect how people actually work, because staff no longer need to physically travel into a workplace to work through an illness.

Employees can instead stay at home and answer emails, join virtual meetings or clear urgent tasks while sick, creating what the researchers describe as new challenges in an increasingly always-on workplace culture.

The authors propose redefining presenteeism as the “behaviour of attending work in the state of suboptimal health, with varied location choices and degree of engagement”.

That means presenteeism should be judged not simply on whether someone turned up for work, but on where they worked from, what health problem they were experiencing and how much effort they put in.

Existing measures are too narrow because they generally count how often people work while ill, or how far illness dents their productivity, the researchers said.

The paper instead sets out a three-dimensional framework built on health, location and engagement, producing eight distinct forms of working while unwell.

The first dimension asks whether the illness is physical or mental. The second asks whether the person works on-site or remotely. The third asks whether they work a full schedule at normal levels of engagement, or cut their hours and effort.

An employee with a physical illness might travel into the office and work a full day, while another stays at home and handles only urgent requests. Someone experiencing anxiety or depression could work either remotely or on-site, at full or reduced engagement.

The researchers said the framework could help separate cases where working while ill causes harm from cases where employees adapt their work in ways that protect their health while covering essential responsibilities.

Digital technology can also make it harder to switch off, with employees feeling pressure to stay available on email and messaging platforms outside normal working hours.

The paper flags inequality in access to flexible working, since remote working is not open to everyone and some workers have little choice but to attend their workplace while unwell.

“The world of work has changed dramatically, but our understanding of what it means to work while sick has not necessarily kept pace with this transformation,” said Cary Cooper, 50th Anniversary Professor of Organisational Psychology and Health at the University of Manchester.

“Technology has given people much greater flexibility over where and when they work, but that flexibility can become a trap if employees feel they have to be available all the time,” Cooper said.

“Someone working from their sofa while ill, answering emails and dealing with urgent requests, is still working while sick – even though they have not physically gone into the workplace,” Cooper said. “The challenge for employers is to make sure that technology and flexible working are used to support people’s health, rather than creating an expectation that they should always be available.”

The authors said mental health needs to be recognised alongside physical illness when considering why people work while unwell, as existing research has concentrated heavily on physical sickness.

They also argued that employers should consider whether staff have the flexibility to cut their hours or workload when ill, rather than treating working while sick as inherently good or bad behaviour.

The paper was published in the journal Health Psychology Research.

Now read: Good news for hybrid workers: Britain’s return-to-office push has stalled