Study: Sick People Should Stay Home

Looking for an excuse to call in sick? This is probably a good one.

A new study at Concordia Univerity suggests that on average, coming to work when you’re sickis vastly more expensive for your employer than staying home. By slowing down recovery, spreading illness to others, and just generally hampering productivity, “presenteeism” with the common cold reportedly costs employers $16.7 billion annually. In contrast, staying home, relaxing, and getting better costs employers a mere $8 billion. The study also identified the most likely culprits for coming into work sick: people who are engaged in teamwork, deal with customers, or are insecure about their jobs. Of the people surveyed, a whopping 83 per cent said they would go to work or school if they had flu-like symptoms.