If you work in food service, you need to stay home if you have any level of contagious disease. No matter how careful you are, a stray cough or sneeze could have your customers suffering the same illness you have. Your boss may be annoyed and your coworkers may be overworked, but in truth having sick cooks or waiters is bad business. I never ate at a particular restaurant again after I got sick shortly after eating there. So that business lost a long-term customer. In the short term, having all your regulars coming down with the sniffles would wreak financial havoc; sick people don't tend to be in the mood for dining out.

If you work in other customer-oriented businesses, the decision to call in sick depends on the severity of the cold. As a classroom instructor, I usually went to work unless my symptoms were so severe that I couldn't work an example without blowing my nose three times. As a tutor at the community college, I made it a policy to stay home whenever I was coughing or sneezing a lot. Working in close physical proximity to others necessitates caution when it comes to the spread of disease.

If you work as a receptionist, cashier, salesperson, or customer service associate, you need to consider the fact that you represent your employer and are the literal "face" of the business. Employers want smiling, well-groomed people for these kinds of positions. If you got hired for such a job, you probably have a pleasant appearance and personality. You may not be gorgeous or even conventionally attractive, but certainly you have some social charisma.

All that goes out the window when you have a cold. Even if you do look like a silver screen starlet or Hollywood hunk, your red, runny nose is unappealing and your bloodshot eyes aren't easy on mine. You might have a sweet smile and a kind word, but seeing you on the job won't give me any warm fuzzy feelings. I'll just be feeling sorry for you and irritated with your boss for not giving you enough (or perhaps not giving you any) sick time. It depresses me that people have to force themselves to go to work when they are clearly ill, and I think all employers should treat their workers with more respect than that. Hence, if you do have sick leave, you should take it when you are visibly ill. Otherwise you send the message that your employer is slave-driving miser, and that isn't how any business owner or manager wants to be viewed.

If your work is mostly solitary, then it is

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