Abstract
Presenteeism is expressed as being at work physically but not mentally. It is defined as the fact that employees are physically present in the workplace but do not fully perform the expected performance for various reasons, or that employees continue to come to work despite being sick. In the literature, presenteeism is predominantly associated with health, but also it is emphasized that individual, organizational, and environmental factors are also important for this problem. In this chapter, the causes of presenteeism were examined under three headings: individual, organizational, and environmental. In the tourism industry, presenteeism can lower productivity and business competitiveness and may cause guest dissatisfaction as a result of the service that cannot be provided correctly. Improvement practices such as leave of absence with pay when employees become ill, improvements in medication and treatment aids, paid leave on sick days, and flexible working hours will ensure the reduction of presenteeism.
TopIntroduction
One of the most important objectives of the business is to earn profit. Productive and physically and mentally healthy employees are needed to achieve this goal. Especially it is very important in the labor-intensive tourism industry. However, in the tourism industry, irregular and long working hours and working conditions that exceed legal regulations adversely affect the employees and work life balance. This situation can cause employees to face the problem of presenteeism in the tourism industry. Presenteeism is expressed as being at work physically but not mentally. On the other hand, it is defined as the fact that employees are physically present in the workplace but do not fully perform the expected performance for various reasons, or that employees continue to come to work despite being sick (Middaugh, 2007; John, 2010; Martinez & Ferreira, 2012; Torp, Vinje & Simonsen, 2016). Improving workforce health and preventing work and lifestyle-related diseases are issues that have become increasingly important in recent years and identified as public health and economic priorities. Hence the presenteeism concept has become an increasingly important issue (Deery, Walsh & Zatzick, 2014). Presenteeism is one of the newly introduced concepts in the literature with its changing and evolving definitions of management and it is an important issue that business have become aware of and emphasized in recent years. Presenteism is a common situation among employees.
In the literature, studies about presenteeism are mainly made in the health industry. In the tourism industry, it is seen that there are less studies on the subject of presenteism and it has increased recently. Therefore, the relationship between tourism industry and presenteeism is examined in this chapter. In this chapter, presenteism, the reasons of presenteeism, the results of presenteeism, the measures that can be taken against presenteeism, the relationship between presenteeism and absenteeism, studies on presenteeism and tourism industry and presenteeism were discussed.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Sickness: Not going to work due to illness.
Mobbing: Acting together with someone or psychologically applied terror.