Nearly all doctors surveyed at an academic hospital in California say they would go to work while sick with a cold, and more 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 had symptoms of a cold, 77 percent said they would work if they had diarrhea, 54 percent said they would work if they were vomiting, and 36 percent said they would work even if they knew for sure that they had the flu. Furthermore, about half said they would work if they had a fever between 101 and 103 degrees, and a quarter said they would work with a fever higher than 103 degrees.

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

Suffice to say, these statistics are no good. The patients at the doctor's office, for the most part, have weakened immune systems and should not have to deal with the added stress of a contagious doctor.

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

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

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

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

It's anything but.

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

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