When One of Your Best Starts to Fade

But lately, something’s shifted. 
She’s missing details. She’s quieter. Her energy’s off. 

What you are not seeing is the shoulder pain that’s getting worse. The wait for a specialist appointment that is months away. The financial pressure at home since her partner was laid off. The growing sense she’s barely keeping it together. 

Sarah is still turning up but she’s not really there. 

And she’s not alone. 

For some, it’s the difficulty of getting timely care, long waits for GPs or Specialists, or the cost of seeing someone privately. For others, it’s the financial pressure of taking time off, especially with rising living costs. Some feel responsible for holding things together at work, or simply do not want to let the team down. 

Mental health still carries a quiet stigma. Many people, especially high performers, feel they cannot show weakness. They have built their reputation on reliability. So they push through, staying late, saying they are fine, convincing everyone (and maybe themselves) they have got it under control. 

Over time, these pressures pile up. 

Stress builds. Health issues go unmanaged. Mental strain becomes harder to hide. And all the while, the person keeps showing up, because they do not see another option. 

The Hidden Cost of Being Present 

When someone comes to work but isn’t able to fully function, physically, mentally or emotionally, that’s presenteeism. In today’s workplace, it’s one of the biggest hidden costs employers face. 

It doesn’t show up on the payroll. It doesn’t trigger a leave request. But it quietly chips away at focus, energy, decision-making and morale. It affects not just the individual, but the team around them, especially when no one knows what’s really going on. 

The Umbrella Wellbeing Report 2025 found that 87% of New Zealand workers had worked while unwell in the past month. One in three said they were operating at just two-thirds of their normal capacity. Multiply that across a business, and the impact is substantial. 

While the average Kiwi employee takes 5.5 sick days per year, presenteeism results in over six days of lost productivity per month per employee. That’s an estimated $46.6 billion annual cost to employers nationwide. 

By comparison, absenteeism costs businesses around $2.86 billion a year making presenteeism up to 16 times more costly, and far less visible.  

A People-First Solution That Works 

For more and more New Zealand businesses, it’s not just about productivity or payroll.

It’s about people. 

Yes, presenteeism has a real financial cost. But many employers are not driven by margins alone. They are seeing their teams under strain and they genuinely want to do better. They just do not always know where to start. 

When someone is struggling with health issues, financial pressure or stress outside of work, it can feel overwhelming especially when you are leading a business and wondering what you can do to help. After all, you can’t change someone’s personal circumstances. 

But you can create an environment that gives them better tools to cope and makes it easier to ask for help before they hit breaking point. 

That’s where we come in. 

At Lifetime, we work with businesses to create employee benefit programmes that are practical, personal and built to make a real difference. That might look like health cover that fast-tracks access to treatment, or mental health support embedded in medical plans. 

These aren’t off-the-shelf perks. They are solutions tailored to your team, your culture and your goals. 

Because when you show your people that their wellbeing matters, they show up stronger, for your business and for themselves. 

Do you want to learn more about  Employee Benefits for your staff?

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