Too Scared to Go Sick: Precarious Academic Work and ‘Presenteeism Culture’ in the UK Higher Education Sector During the Covid-19 Pandemic

Abstract

This article discusses the story of Steven, a precarious academic worker, and his decision to work from home while being infected with Covid-19; a phenomenon called virtual presenteeism. As argued, Steven’s sickness presence is the outcome of the increasing precarity and job insecurity in the sector, as well as the outcome of a presenteeism culture in academia which is being facilitated by technology and the blended learning approach adopted during the pandemic. The article outlines precarious academic workers’ fear to go off sick, illustrating how Steven negotiates the precarity of his contract via virtual presenteeism to portray over-commitment to the institution and avoid the risk of job loss. As concluded, while blended learning becomes the new educational norm in higher education, virtual presenteeism risks becoming the new attendance norm. This article calls for more research to examine how the blended teaching approach will further impact on academic work, post-pandemic.

Remote work and the COVID-19 pandemic: An artificial intelligence-based topic modeling and a future agenda

“…Some researchers argue that COVID-19-induced remote work has significantly altered a large number of jobs, most of which now require the use of digital technologies to collaborate with geographically dispersed team members ( Waizenegger et al, 2020 ). Ultimately, the majority of existing research has emphasized the negative consequences of pandemic-induced remote work by examining job losses ( Bradley et al, 2021 , Hadjisolomou et al, 2021 ).…”

Sick and working: Current challenges and emerging directions for future presenteeism research

“…Yet much like team absenteeism (e.g., Miraglia & Johns, 2021; ten Brummelhuis et al, 2016), presenteeism might vary between teams, enough so to warrant investigation at the team level. However, and although we see growing interest in presenteeism culture in recent years (e.g., Hadjisolomou et al, 2022; Ruhle & Süß, 2020), research has yet to incorporate measures that capture distinct presenteeism profiles of teams within the same organization.…”

Matter and Method: The Quest for a New‐Materialist Methodology in Management Studies

“…Within this workspace assemblage, we materialize as precarious nodes in a vibrant network that constantly forms and transforms itself, producing new modes of being/doing (Deleuze and Guattari, 1987). While the pandemic has transformed work within academia (and beyond), often reinforcing sociomaterial hierarchies of precariousness (Hadjisolomou, Mitsakis and Gary, 2022), such an approach offers new ways of thinking about management, even for those who cannot do 'traditional fieldwork research'. From this perspective, new materialist research overcomes the boundaries of conventional methodologies to sustain 'the non-dualistic study of the world within, beside and among us' and grasp 'the world that precedes, includes and exceeds us ' (van der Tuin, 2018, p. 277).…”