As winter leaves us, and the general chill of past weeks dissipates, we are reintroduced to the season of blooming flowers, warm weather and, most importantly, allergies. With allergies come illnesses, and with illnesses come great responsibilities. Nothing is noble about projecting yourself on an unwilling audience, so why is coming to school or going to work while sick seen as something to boast about? If you’re sick, it’s as simple as this: Stay home.

Productivity is at an all-time low when you’re sick. Think about all the things you did that were productive last time you had the flu. Sure, you’re caught up on “Game of Thrones” now, but beyond that, your choice of activity was probably negligible, and any progress you made at work or at school was most certainly halted.

Being sick is costly. Even when you put aside the price of the exorbitant amount of tissues you consume or the copious amounts of orange juice you drink, being sick is still costing you. It’s costing you potential work hours on a project, income you would be earning at work and even the strengthening of social relationships.

However, even the dullest tool in the shed understands staying home is not always in the cards. Some people are in such dire times that they need the paycheck they would earn by going to work that day, and some people are even punished by their professors or employers for staying home while sick – an act that should be commended.

I urge you to take into consideration how you feel the next time you’re sick, and if you are fortunate enough to be able to spare your colleagues such a feeling, please do.

As far as situations in the workplace go where an employee is punished for sparing their colleagues of their illness, I urge the decision makers in these scenarios to please reconsider their outlook on the matter. Having sick employees is unprofessional. Not only does it look bad for your business, but also it looks bad on you as a manager. No one wants to be checked out by the sick cashier, and they start to question the management forcing that sick cashier to work. A happy and healthy employee attracts happy and healthy customers.

Regarding other ludicrous policies some professors put forth, mandatory attendance is potentially the most baffling. Some classes require attendance – generally, courses in which most or all of the course work is done within the confines of the class itself. However, classes that take place in large auditoriums or lecture halls are not ideal for mandatory attendance.

In a class of 400, it only takes a couple people to infect the entire room – a few unblocked coughs and sneezes, and next week, the whole class is under the weather. Those illnesses then trickle to the rest of campus, and on it goes. All this occurs simply because a professor requires attendance.

In order to fix this, I suggest either drastically reducing the penalty for missing a class or making attendance a small amount of extra credit. Allow the students who only miss one to three days to replace a quiz or test grade, but by no means punish the ones who spared us of an illness.

The moral of the story is don’t be selfish with your sickness. If you’re feeling ill, stay home. If you’re a rule maker who requires the infectious and the unhealthy to attend their job or class, I strongly urge you to reconsider.