Don't be a hero: why you shouldn't come to work when you're sick

Your throat is scratchy, you’ve been sniffling, sneezing and coughing, in addition to trying to keep your glazed eyes focused on the work in front of you on your office computer.

But in reality, you should have never left your house because when people come in sick, the illness spreads.

However, a new working paper by the nonprofit National Bureau of Economic Research says this problem can be avoided by giving workers a financial incentive to stay in bed.

The researchers looked at U.S. cities that instituted mandatory paid sick-leave between 2003 and 2015 and compared it to statistics from Google Flu Trends at the city and state level, during that same period, to see if there were any changes after the policies went into effect.

According to the paper, the cities that implemented paid sick-leave saw flu-like incidences drop by 100 cases a week per 100, 000 people.

They added that infection rates could further decline after employees have collected larger amounts of paid sick days.

A report on the subject from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics in 2010 found that 61 per cent of private-industry workers and 89 per cent of state and local government employees had access to paid sick leave, with them having access to an average of eight and 11 days respectively after a year of service.

While coming into work with a runny nose or cough is a proposition that most people dread, up to 3 million U.S. employees do it each week in a phenomenon that’s been called “contagious presenteeism.”

And beyond being a truly awful experience for George, who was embarrassed for sneezing on this week’s TPS reports, those germs are also getting other people at the office sick.

"You see people who are at the workplace sneezing and potentially infectious. That's how diseases spread," Nicolas Ziebarth, an assistant professor at Cornell University and one of the study's researchers, told Bloomberg.

The problem is exacerbated by the fact that most workers tend to come into the office when they’re first starting to get sick and still feel like they can still get things, but are at their most contagious.

"You have over-the-counter drugs that suppress your symptoms, but they don't suppress contagiousness," Ziebarth, said, to remedies that can make you feel well enough to work.

The reasons vary for why employees decide against staying home, but they range from having too many deadlines, being unable to afford the day off, their boss expects them to work anyway, or they don’t trust anyone else to perform their duties.

“Some people want to appear tough and signal that they are hard-working,” added Ziebarth.

Besides the health concerns, employees who work sick are obviously less productive.

Researchers say they are about a third as productive compared to when they are at full health.

And, according to a study from Queen’s University, the resulting drag in completing tasks costs employers twice as much as when workers stay home.

Further research has pegged the economic cost of presenteeism related to the common cold at $16.7 billion.

Employers should at least offer the option to telecommute, so ailing workers won’t infect others.

And working from home has become a more acceptable practice, with 60 per cent of employers saying they allow it, according to the Society for Human Resource Management’s annual Employee Benefits Survey.

And Ziebarth told Bloomberg it is “good to change” these attitudes around work culture, especially

“You can signal hard work in a lot of different ways,” he said.

“It’s not the right way to go into the office and spread diseases.”