I woke up one morning last week with all the usual signs of a nasty cold: thumping headache, blocked nose, spousal accusations that I had spent the night snoring like a pregnant hippo.
Then I did what almost everyone I know does on a day like this. I got up and went to work. On the way in on the Tube, I was coughed and spluttered over by a lot of people dressed for a day at the office. When I got to my desk, doubtless laden with fresh supplies of pathogens, the air was ringing with the familiar snivels of a London autumn.
Such is the state of what the human resources industry has come to call presenteeism, or coming to work when ill. A tide of research shows this is bone-headed and counter-productive, for companies as well as workers.