“I don’t care, I’m going to work!” It is not uncommon for Covid-19 contact tracers to hear this sentiment while calling people to quarantine or isolate, especially now that the entire world is experiencing a global pandemic. This dialogue is the result of the pushback due to work presenteeism that contact tracers may experience while advising people to quarantine. Work presenteeism is a term used to describe a common pattern of behavior in which people go to work while sick. Since the beginning of the pandemic, work presenteeism seems to have not slowed down despite the rise of the highly transmissible 2019 novel Coronavirus. It still seems to be an essential part of the U.S workforce despite the adverse effects it has on the productivity of the workplace, the health of the workers, and most importantly, disease spread, but why do people still participate in this behavior? Through my contact tracing experience, literature review, and data/trends from previous research and databases, I found that the main reasons for presenteeism are primarily due to financial insecurity, factors relating to work policies such as non-guaranteed paid sick leave, and other ideologies pertaining to American work culture. My research also looks into the extent to which these factors affect people’s receptivity and compliance to isolation and quarantine protocols amidst a global pandemic. From there, I further discuss how contact tracers can go about this issue and what this pattern of behavior says about the systematic structures set in place within the U.S workforce.
Authors: Whitney Damson, Dr. Cameron Hay-Rollins, Dr. Paul Flaspohler
Faculty Advisors: Cameron Hay-Rollins, Department of Anthropology and Paul Flaspohler, Department of Psychology
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