Umbrella Wellbeing Report 2025:

Presenteeism at Work

Presenteeism refers to being present at work (either in person or online) while experiencing ill health or poor wellbeing.

Presenteeism often prevails when we should really take a sick day, but we push through or work from home instead. Or when we are experiencing high levels of stress, causing us to lose focus and, often, make costly errors in judgment, but we have to keep showing up at work.

Accessing data from thousands of New Zealand workers who completed the Umbrella Assessment in 2024, we provide business leaders with fresh insights into presenteeism at work. Presenteeism, if businesses know about the concept at all, is usually a hidden phenomenon. Ignoring presenteeism means ignoring the

significant impact it can have on the long-term wellbeing of both workers and organisations through lost productivity, prolonged illness and slowed recovery. Despite all this, there is some necessary (and even functional) presenteeism. 

The good news is that the same interventions that help to prevent dysfunctional presenteeism can also protect functional presenteeism.

Download the report to better understand how you can mitigate the risk and maximise the opportunity– whether at an organisational or managerial level – to reduce presenteeism, navigate through change, and grow productivity in your organisation.

Get in touch if you’d like to find out more about mental safety and how we can help you to meet your health and safety obligations, and boost performance at the same time.