Presenteeism – going to work while feeling unwell – is prevalent despite the pandemic and research showing it is maladaptive (Miraglia & Johns, 2021). One reason employees engage in presenteeism is because of job security concerns (Luksyte et al., 2023). Accordingly, we argue that overqualified employees – those who believe they have more education, skills, and experience than needed – are unlikely to engage in presenteeism because they are less concerned with job security, less committed to their jobs and engage in more withdrawal behaviours (Erdogan & Bauer, 2021).

We further argue that competitive climates – wherein employees vie for limited organisational resources – may inadvertently encourage presenteeism, even amongst overqualified employees. Namely, competitive climates may compel overqualified employees to engage in presenteeism because they have surplus resources that they can use to compete with others, even when they are at diminished capacity due to illness. Working while sick becomes a way to protect their perceived status of having a comparative surplus of resources. Conversely, overqualified employees in less competitive climates will not feel pressure to compete for resources and/ or protect their resource surplus/ identity and will instead choose to stay home and protect their health.

We tested our hypotheses in two studies: Study 1 (cross-sectional) surveyed registered surgeons (N = 422), and Study 2 (time-lagged) surveyed employees from various occupations (N = 114). We used the same measures across the studies: overqualification (9-items), presenteeism (2-items), co-worker competitive climate (4-items), and control variables (age, gender, work experience, and organisational tenure).

As predicted, in Study 1, competitive culture moderated the relationship between overqualification and presenteeism (B = 0.19, SE = 0.09, t = 2.23, p = 0.03). The simple slope test showed that for higher (+1SD) levels of competitive climate, the relationship was positive (B = 0.31, p = 0.01; Figure 1); however, at lower (-1SD) levels, this linkage was non-significant (B = -0.12, p = 0.41). These results were replicated in Study 2 (B = 0.22, SE = 0.10, t = 2.13, p = 0.04), demonstrating a positive relationship in higher competitive climates (B = 0.42, p = 0.02; Figure 2) and a non-significant one in lower climates (B = -0.04, p = 0.77).

The results demonstrated how organisations can inadvertently encourage presenteeism among overqualified employees who typically resist these maladaptive behaviours. Our research highlights the potential dark side of using competitive climates to combat under-stimulation in overqualified employees.

1. Identify whether overqualified employees are less likely to engage in presenteeism due to their abundance of job-related resources.
2. Explicate why a higher (relative to lower) competitive climate may encourage overqualified employees to engage in presenteeism.
3. Provide recommendations for avoiding negative outcomes when attempting to engage and motivate overqualified employees.