People affected by worsening health due to aging or living with chronic conditions may not be able to work as well as they have in the past. This can take the form of still being at work but less productive (referred to as “presenteeism”), working fewer hours, or stopping work completely. Recently, the COVID-19 pandemic and the transition to working from home have affected people’s work and productivity. Few studies have looked at how work productivity loss is changing over time, how presenteeism leads to unemployment or retirement, especially in an aging population, and how COVID-19 and working from home may also have an impact. This research will tackle these knowledge gaps. It will provide evidence to support workplace and government efforts to help middle-aged or older workers stay in the workforce and keep up their productivity including whether working from home is a viable arrangement. The research will be based on the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging data and will look at four specific objectives:

1. Look at employment status changes over time among middle-aged or older workers and identify what factors are associated with the changes;
2. Measure the association between current presenteeism and future employment status in the short-medium term within the context of COVID-19;
3. Measure the change in presenteeism over time in those who stay employed in the short-medium term and look at the impact of working from home during COVID-19 on the change in presenteeism;
4. Look at the sex and gender similarities and differences in Objectives 1-3.