What is digital presenteeism?

Digital presenteeism is the problem of remote employees logging on to work when it’s not expected of them, or healthy to do so. For example, digital presenteeism would describe a situation when a remote employee worked despite:

• feeling unwell
• feeling burnt out
• being outside their normal working hours
• dealing with issues outside of work, for example, emergency childcare

Digital presenteeism is also commonly used to describe a situation where remote workers feel the necessity to respond to work communications when they are not within their working hours.

How to tackle digital presenteeism

In remote companies, it’s important to foster a culture that values people taking time away from their work and discourages digital presenteeism. Having an ‘always on’ culture, where employees feel responsible 24/7 can lead to problems such as burnout, poor productivity, or workers leaving to find another job with a better work/life balance.

Offering a time off policy and encouraging employees to take time off regularly will also help to encourage employees guilty of digital presenteeism to put down tools and spend time away from the screen. Oyster’s global employment platform includes a time-off management tool that allows you to track and manage time-off requests and automate subsequent payroll adjustments.

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