Hacking. Coughing. Sneezing. Sometimes the workplace sounds less like an office and more like a hospital ward, especially now that we're at the height of cold and flu season.

干咳、咳嗽、打喷嚏。有时候，办公室听上去更像医院病房，尤其我们现在处于感冒、流感的高发期。

If you're not feeling great, do yourself and your coworkers a favor: Call in sick. You'll likely get better faster and save your employer money.

如果感觉不好，那就对自己和同事好一点：请病假吧。你将会好得更快，也能给雇主省钱。

Yes, there's a financial price to coming to work ill. It's called presenteeism, and it costs employers $180 billion annually, according to a 2007 study by the Society for Human Resources Management. That's more than employers shell out for employee absenteeism, which costs only $118 billion a year.

是的，带病上班耗费金钱。这被称之为“带病出工”（注：和旷工相反），根据人类资源管理协会2007年的报告，“带病出工”会让雇主每年损失1800亿美元，这比旷工带来的损失还要多——那仅仅是每年1180亿美元。

Sick employees don't just affect their own work; they infect coworkers who then need to take time off themselves. (Or who come in sick and spread the germs further.)

病了的员工不但影响到自己的工作，还会把病传染给同事们，随后他们也要去请假，或者继续上班，传播更多的病毒。

Is it just sniffles? 仅仅是打喷嚏吗？

Most people do get paid time off. Some 57% of all private businesses offer paid sick leave, according to a 2007 report from the Department of Labor. Still, there's a natural worry that if you don't go in, the work won't get done, or it will pile up so high you'll never be able to get through it all. That's especially true these days, when it seems everyone is doing more work with less resources.

多数人在休息的时候都有薪水。根据美国劳工部2007年的一份报告，57％的私企提供带薪病假。可是很自然的，人们会出现担心不上班就完成不了工作，它将堆积如山，你永远都无法搞定。尤其是现在，公司都在利用更少的资源完成更多的工作。

"People don't want to stay home and add to their coworkers' workloads just because they've got the sniffles," says Michael Smith, a physician who is chief medical editor for WebMD. "In the end it hurts more then it helps."

来自WebMD网站的首席医学编辑Michael Smith医生说：“人们不想只是因为打喷嚏就呆在家里，从而增加同事的工作负担。但这么做最终弊大于利。”

Yes, if it's really nothing more than sniffles, go on in. To be safe, wash your hands more often, don't touch anyone else's phone or keyboard and always cough or sneeze into a tissue.

是的，如果仅仅是打喷嚏，那就继续上班吧。安全起见，要更多地洗手，不要接触任何人的电话或键盘，并且只朝纸巾擤鼻涕、咳嗽。

Ideally, though, with any true cold, even just a minor one, you should work from home, Smith says. Definitely call in sick, he adds, if you've got a stuffed nose, cough, chest congestion or are throwing up. And never go into the office with a fever.

不过，Smith说，理想的情况是，如果感冒了，即便是轻感冒，你也应该呆在家工作。他补充到，如果你鼻塞、咳嗽、胸堵，或者呕吐，那么就一定要请病假。绝对不要在发烧时去上班。

"If you've got any inkling of being contagious, it's just not fair to go in," says Wendy Nice Barnes, vice president of human resources at ehealthinsurance. She says people showing up at work sick are a much bigger concern than people missing work when they're not really ill.

来自ehealthinsurance机构的人力资源部门副主任Wendy Nice Barnes说：“如果已经出现任何具有传染性的端倪，上班是不合适的”。她说带病上班的人比那些装病请假的人更令人担忧。

The healthy options 利于健康的选择

But it's not only about being kind to your coworkers. "Staying home a day or two may shorten the illness," Smith points out.

但是，请假不光是为了同事。Smith指出：“在家呆一两天可以让病好得更快。”

Perhaps you'll feel better taking the day off if you know how many sick and personal days you have annually. When you call in sick, try to reach your manager directly by phone. Explain that you're not feeling well and you don't want to expose everyone else in the office to whatever you've got.

你知道每年拥有多少天病假之后，会对请假感觉更心安。请病假的时候，直接和你的经理通话。告诉他/她你身体不舒服，不想将自己的病传播给同办公室的其他人。

Since not everybody is so considerate, do what you can to stay healthy. Get a flu shot. Many employers offer them on-site for free or for less than at a doctor's office. Keep antibacterial soap handy for washing your hands, especially after interacting with a sick coworker.

既然不是每个雇主都会体恤员工，那么自己要尽力保持健康。打流感免疫针。有些企业提供免费免疫针，或者低于医院价格。洗手时，抗菌肥皂要触手可及，尤其在和生病的同事接触后。

"The most common way to get a cold or the flu is by touching something contaminated by someone infected," Smith says. "It's not someone sneezing or coughing in your face. It's them contaminating a phone."

“得感冒或流感最常见的途径是接触被患者污染了的东西。并不是那一个对着你打喷嚏或咳嗽的人，而是那些污染了电话的人。”

Employers should do their part, too. The most significant action they can take is to offer subsidized flu shots, says Joyce Maroney, director of the Workforce Institute at Kronos, a provider of workforce management software. Also, it might seem corny, she says, but it's good to have signs up in public places about hygiene and safety information.

人力管理软件提供商Kronos的人力研究院主任Joyce Maroney说，雇主们也应该尽一份力。他们所能做的最有意义的事是提供补贴性流感疫苗。还有一个听上去老套的方法，那就是在公共场所贴上卫生和安全信息。

Above all, simply don't feel guilty about calling in sick.

最重要的一点，不要对请病假感到愧疚。