Presenteeism, defined as the act of attending work while sick, has become increasingly prevalent in the workplace and has even shown an upward trend since the pandemic. Despite its ubiquity, we currently know very little about presenteeism outcomes. The limited research available on presenteeism outcomes has primarily adopted a resource-based perspective and focuses on its effects on employees’ health, productivity, and performance. Building on the theory of moral disengagement, our research aims to explore the outcomes of presenteeism from a moral perspective. We argue that employees may become morally disengaged after enacting presenteeism, particularly when they feel secure about their jobs, which can subsequently lead to psychological withdrawal. To examine our hypotheses, we conducted two field studies. Study 1 with two-wave, time-lagged data revealed that presenteeism was positively associated with moral engagement among employees with high job security. Study 2 with two-wave multi-sources data replicated the findings in Study 1 and further demonstrated that the interactive effect of presenteeism and job security on moral disengagement could lead to subsequent psychological withdrawal. Our findings offer a novel perspective to explain the potential negative outcomes of presenteeism. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
