Presenteeism
Etymology
Built by analogy with "absenteeism," swapping "absent" for "present." The word appears from the mid-20th century but was sharpened in the 1990s by researchers such as the organizational psychologist Cary Cooper to name working while sick and the productivity lost to it. Remote work later stretched the term to cover always-online availability as a substitute for output.
noun · /PREZ-un-TEE-iz-um/
Being physically present at work while unproductive — often because one is ill, exhausted, or simply performing visibility rather than doing useful work.
What it names
A precise handle for a cost that never shows up on a spreadsheet: the hours logged, and health spent, to look committed rather than to actually accomplish anything.
Example
Their culture of presenteeism meant people dragged themselves in with the flu just to be seen at their desks.
Related idea
Productivity theater overlaps but points at the staging specifically — the busy-looking signals — whereas presenteeism is the broader fact of being there without being effective.