Are You Part Of The $1.5 Trillion Problem Most Leaders Are Making?

There are many problems that are occurring in the world of Business today, many which I have wrote about.

There is the ongoing battle between Remote Work and Return-To-Office Mandates.

It seems that the Employees are continuing to win this battle as Office Rates have Stabilized and appear to be moving back toward Remote Work.

There is also the ongoing battle around AI and how it should be used in the workplace, and what it will mean for Employees in the Future.

Though AI can do some interesting work, and it absolutely will change how the workforce develops, it still is nowhere near the "hero" or "villain" people think it could become.

Plus, if you believe that AI will be your "savior" in business, I've got a significantly larger problem that AI isn't going to fix.

It's currently a $1.5 Trillion Problem in our World today that Leaders are consistently Failing to fix.

The Problem?

Presenteeism.

Is It Really THAT Bad?

Well, let's look at the other problem that tends to get more Focus.

Absenteeism.

When Employees are in states of Dis-Stress, they have a much higher frequency of being absent from work.

Sometimes it is due to being sick more often, as Dis-Stress is a major cause (some would claim the ONLY cause) of major diseases.

Sometimes it is simply due to Employees deciding they'd rather not go in.

When you understand Psychophysiology, this is not a surprising thing to see happen.

Dis-Stress can "literally" be spread through functions of our Neurocardiology, and people despise being in Environments where there are high levels of Dis-Stress.

If you knew that going to a place made you SIGNIFICANTLY more likely to get sick, would you want to go to it?

Of course not.

And Employees are realizing that place is called "The Office".

But how big is the problem of Absenteeism?

$150 Billion.

Still EXTREMELY high, but 10 Times LESS than Presenteeism.

Understanding The Problem Better

So, let's look at Presenteeism more closely.

Presenteeism is where people go into the office, but they simply aren't really doing work.

For a manager looking out over the desks, it may "appear" that Employees are doing their work, but it often isn't true.

The reality is that they are just sitting there, checking off the box of "being in the office" and "looking busy".

Why does this happen?

We must start with the Dis-Stress problem.

The research shows that about 80% of Employees today are in stages of Burnout, which is just the final stage of Dis-Stress.

Burnout is really just a fancy term for saying that our bodies have no more Energy (Mg-ATP, what the body runs on) to keep going.

So, what do people do when they have no Energy?

Survival Mode.

Their body will literally do everything in it's power to conserve Energy.

In the workplace, that means only doing the minimum amount of work to keep their job.

If sitting in a chair looking pretty will keep them their job, then they'll do it.

Really, Presenteeism is just a form of Active Disengagement.

When we take this back to the Psychophysiology as well, we see that everyone being in the office together only spreads Dis-Stress.

Again, we can "literally" pass Dis-Stress via our Neurocardiology.

So forcing a bunch of people together into the same room, while they are ALL experiencing Burnout, will only make Burnout WORSE!

It is just Compounding the Problem.

This also points to another Leadership Problem.

We are seeing Presenteeism so prevalent because most Leaders don't know what to be tracking to measure Productivity.

So they rely on Vanity Metrics, like people being at their desk, metrics that prove absolutely NOTHING about Productivity, but make Leaders "feel good".

At the end of the day though, Vanity does not Win Business.

Understanding What To Do

If you are paying attention, you'll notice that there is really only ONE problem that is underlying these Problems.

Dis-Stress.

If you fix this Problem, everything in the Workplace becomes Easier.

But how do you go about fixing Dis-Stress?

Well, the "common" answer is to use a "Wellness Program".

However, that would be a mistake.

When you look at the Data around Wellness Programs, you'll find that they generally Fail.

In "Theory", Wellness Programs should eliminate Dis-Stress.

But they haven't.

Burnout (the worst form of Dis-Stress) has only gotten worse in the Workplace, despite the increase in Wellness Programs.

Why?

Most of them Fail to get to the Root of the Problem - Oxidative Stress.

See, Dis-Stress causes Oxidative Stress in our bodies, also known as Stress Damage.

In stages of Burnout, our bodies have accumulated so much Stress Damage that it can't produce enough Energy to fix that Damage.

For a Wellness program to actually Succeed, it needs to actually impact and reduce Oxidative Stress.

If it doesn't, it's like putting a Band-Aid on a Festering Wound.

On top of this, Wellness Programs often don't help make the Office a Cohesive Environment.

Sure, individuals may participate in the programs, but Individual Effort often doesn't directly tie to Team Effort.

This is why Wellness Programs are not enough.

Really, you need to Design a Regenerative Legacy.

You need every aspect of your Business to be Regenerative.

When you understand this, everything changes.

Leaders start Improving due to Regenerative Efforts.

Employees start Improving due to Regenerative Efforts.

Customers seek you out due to Regenerative Efforts.

The Office, and further the World, around us improves due to Regenerative Efforts.

It is all part of an Environment that Everyone participates in, fueling Team Effort.

Dis-Stress decreases, Burnout becomes Eliminated.

Presenteeism and Absenteeism become artifacts of a misguided bygone era.

This is the Future that people are seeking, and the Leaders who Design a Regenerative Legacy this will have significant advantages over the next decade.