For the past several days, I've been hearing lots of coughingand sneezing—and general discussions about fevers, vomiting and alot of other unpleasant symptoms I'd really rather not catch.

By the way, I'm at work.

Sound familiar? It's everyone's favorite time of year, cold andflu season—when a lot of sick peopledecide to come to work anyway. (An annual flu-season survey fromStaples finds that 53 percent of workers say they have gone to workwith the flu.)

The problem is so extensive that it even affects—wait forit—doctors.

Nearly all doctors surveyed at an academic hospital inCalifornia say they would go to work while sick with a cold, andmore than a third say they would work if they had the flu.

Here are the gory details:

A full 96 percent of docs said they would work if they hadsymptoms of a cold, 77 percent said they would work if they haddiarrhea, 54 percent said they would work if they were vomiting,and 36 percent said they would work even if they knew for sure thatthey had the flu. Furthermore, about half said they would work ifthey had a fever between 101 and 103 degrees, and a quarter saidthey would work with a fever higher than 103 degrees.

The report is no outlier. According to a survey of workers atthe Children's Hospital of Philadelphia a couple of months back,while the vast majority of health care professionals—95percent—said they believed that working while sick puts patients atrisk, 83 percent said they had come to work with symptoms at leastonce in the past year.

Suffice to say, these statistics are no good. The patients atthe doctor's office, for the most part, have weakened immunesystems and should not have to deal with the added stress of acontagious doctor.

Why is this happening? Like it does with most workers who comeinto work when they probably shouldn't, the decision revolvesaround guilt.

“A lot of it had to do with feeling guilty: that your colleaguesare going to come and take on the work if you aren't there, or thatyour patients are going to suffer if you're not there,” said studyresearcher Dr. Shruti Gohil, an associate medical director at theUniversity of California Irvine Medical Center.

Actually following doctor's orders (ahem) and staying home when sick shouldcertainly start with doctors. And extend to the rest of theworkforce.

That guilt, of course, does not just fall on those wearing astethoscope. Many workers have this ingrained sense of duty, afeeling that calling in sick makes us looks weak, unprofessionaland lazy (sounds like vacation time, eh?).

It's anything but.

Sick workers drain productivity; they cost employers abundle—and of course, they're getting everyone else sick, too.Managers, it's time to be a leader and encourage sick workers tostay where they belong: in their own germ-filled home.

Oh, and while you're at it, please make sure to offer flushots.