As more people take the leap to remote work, a worrying trend has started to emerge that threatens to topple the principles of freedom and flexibility that remote work stands upon. The threat? Digital presenteeism.

What is Digital Presenteeism?

Stemming from its older and more well-known brother, presenteeism, digital presenteeism is like a high-tech evolved version for the modern age. It’s the T-1000 to Arnie’s T-800. And it’s about as dangerous too.

In short, digital presenteeism is the incessant need to be present online, via email, Slack, Zoom, Google Meet or whatever other software your company uses. Morning, evening; weekday, weekend; it’s the pressure you feel to let somebody know that you are working. You go out of your way to prove you’re working rather than simply working.

It’s a tell-tale sign of a toxic workplace, and it needs to stop.

Worrying Statistics

As remote work has only really become mainstream in the last few years, there is yet to be a great number of studies on virtual micromanagement and digital presenteeism in the workplace. However, there was one important study by Qatalog and Gitlab, the results of which became available in July, 2022.

According to this study, remote employees waste an average of 67 extra minutes per day on basic tasks to try and ‘prove’ they are working. That’s over 22 hours per month, or 250+ hours per year – outside of working hours!

There are several tasks that workers feel they need to do to be more visible in the virtual workplace. 70% of the people surveyed said they sent emails, while 53% sent or replied to instant messages. 52% set their workplace apps to “Active”, and all this to keep the tsunami of work-app notifications at bay. 

When I used to work with a company that used Hubstaff, a time-tracking software, I would often not switch it on when I was answering long Slack messages or emails for lack of clarity in our agreement about what constituted paid work. I felt contractually obliged to respond but not to earn for my input and advice.

Another interesting statistic from the survey is that 63% of participants believe that their bosses want to preserve traditional in-office work culture. Elon Musk was recently criticized for being one such boss. He was so anti-remote work that he sent everyone back to the office as soon as he could.

Perhaps even more worryingly, the State of the Global Workplace Report for 2022 suggests that only 21% of employees are engaged at work. Most employees are still working for a paycheck, watching the clock tick down, and waiting for Friday to end.

This report also mentions that stress at the workplace is at an all-time-high – even higher than in 2020!

Examples of Digital Presenteeism in the Workplace

  • Working while ill

Back in the office days, if you were too sick to go into work, you’d usually call up your boss, explain the situation, and stay at home to recover. How does that pan out with remote work?

You message your boss on Slack, and suddenly, if you’re on Slack already then you can probably manage a bit of work too. There’s an unspoken feeling that sits in the work chat like a thick fog, suffocating you with feelings of laziness and stress, even though you may be too ill to properly concentrate. This stress makes it difficult to switch off.

  • Working out of hours

Switching off can be particularly troublesome for freelancers who are more flexible with their time. Because they can work any hours, they’re often expected to work all hours. I speak from personal experience of responding to Slack messages and helping out colleagues anywhere from midnight to 5am. It’s almost as though you’re on call. This is especially the case if you’re part of an asynchronous team.

  • Working while dealing with personal issues

Going through a rough patch or feeling burnt out? Suddenly found yourself stuck without childcare and you’ve got 2 kids running about while you’re trying to attend important work calls? Persevering through these kinds of problems is a form of presenteeism. It should be okay to take some time off to sort out an unexpected problem, especially one that’s completely out of your control.

How to Prevent Digital Presenteeism in the Workplace

It’s critical for remote and async companies to value their employee’s time, and give them space to enjoy it.

By having employees constantly on standby, waiting for the next notification, they can never really switch off and unwind. It can cause burnout, reduce productivity and kill creativity.

There are a few potential solutions to digital presenteeism:

Establish Boundaries

By creating boundaries, you lead by example and inspire others to do the same. You can block out time so that you and/or your team’s calendars have big free spots with no meetings or appointments. 

Take a leaf out of Belgium, Portugal and other European countries’ books by prohibiting management from emailing employees outside of work hours. While this would only really work if all your employees are in the same time zone, it’s a nice idea to introduce as company policy.

Asynchronous Working

One of the best ways to overcome digital presenteeism is to embrace asynchronous working. Not everybody needs to be present simultaneously. People can catch up on video calls, work documents, and work-app notifications in their own time.

Async working gives people the freedom to work when they are most productive and when they are free from distractions. They can take breaks and recharge without feeling watched or guilty, plus it’s a huge benefit for remote teams that are scattered across many different time zones.

Use Async Tools

There are plenty of asynchronous tools to use in the workplace, including tl;dv, a video conferencing software that enables you to catch up on meetings in minutes. Loom is another good one that allows you to screen record and leave a message for the recipient to watch in their own time.

Customize Your Notifications

Don’t let the notification bell rule your life. You get to choose how often you are distracted, not your colleagues. You can also do this by switching your status to away or busy to avoid being pestered when you are not working. 

While it might impress your boss initially, you’ll regret leaving your status as active when you’re receiving non-stop last-minute requests. You’ll burn out hard and fast. Defining when you are at work via your status is perfectly fine. If people can’t reach you, they’ll have to wait till you’re back the next day.

Employ Wellness Initiatives

Productivity is always enhanced by employee health and happiness. By encouraging your workforce to take regular breaks, walk at least 10,000 steps, or even practice something like meditation, you’re increasing engagement and giving them a huge boost to productivity.

In fact, the State of the Global Workplace Report suggests that “when employees are engaged and thriving, they experience significantly less stress, anger and health problems” and that “low engagement alone costs the global economy $7.8 trillion.”

You can offset this by hosting game nights on Slack or running regular quizzes or setting up a book club that isn’t work-related. These activities engage the mind while allowing it to switch off from work and have fun.

But there’s one more thing everyone can do to prevent digital presenteeism, and this is on an individual basis…

Make Sure You Aren’t Creating Toxic Work Habits for Yourself

While digital presenteeism is usually seen as pressure from your manager or work culture to always be present and visible, this pressure can also come from within you. 

If you feel the need to be organized and on top of things, you may push yourself to appear active even when your employees don’t expect or even require you to be.

Does your boss really expect you to work weekends, or after an emergency surgery? Sometimes, we imagine pressures that aren’t there. 

If you unapologeticallly make relaxation and recovery a priority in your life, you will automatically set up healthy boundaries between you and your work.

And what you might find is that no one at your workplace actually bats an eyelid.