On Sunday, I had a notion to stand up at my seat in the churchs choir loft during the prayers and joys time of the worship service and proclaim my blessing of good health. After all, Sunday precisely marked the 29th anniversary of the last day I had to take a work sick day. Now Ive started my 30th year. Just two days, back to back in 1978, are all that mar an otherwise perfect work record in the daily newspaper business going back to 1972. I had mentioned that milestone the day before to a friend in Albuquerque, N.M., and he e-mailed a Reuters wire story with the headline Presenteeism afflicts business, experts say. Because of many factors, it noted, people are going to work sick in more than half of U.S. workplaces. As a result, American businesses are supposedly losing $180 million a year.Like its more notorious counterpart, absenteeism, it takes a growing importance as employers try to keep an eye on productivity and the bottom line, experts say. One spokesman for a business and corporate law information company said employers are more worried about the threat that sick employees pose in the workplace. It said it goes unrecognized how much presenteeism is affecting the bottom line. One researcher determined that 56 percent of human resource executives see presenteeism as a problem, up from 39 percent noting that two years ago.When sick and not-yet-well workers show up, their productivity is low, their recovery may take longer, thus prolonging that low productivity and the potential spread of illness to customers and colleagues comes into play, it said. We all think we know somebody whos made us sick, when that person is speaking into the same phone or touching your computer or even turning your doorknob, said Cheryl Koopman, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University, whom the Reuters writer identifies as an expert in workplace stress and presenteeism. She said she may be guilty of making colleagues sick by coming to work ill. Canceling a class because I have a cold just doesnt seem justifiable, she said. Ill keep my distance from the students. Ill try not to cough at them. I think of how Im going to do it without making anybody getting sick.The research notes that two-thirds of the time, sick people go to work because they think they have too much work to do there, followed by the fact that most workers believe no one else is available to cover their work assignments. With corporate downsizings of the past creating a leaner workforce, employees often feel they have to show up for work, whether its out of guilt over staying home or concerns over job security.Reuters said presenteeism, in some workplaces, may be honored with perfect attendance, exacerbating the disease-spreading chances. Said Koopman, Theres an American ethic to tough it out, rise to the occasion and ignore your minor woes. It sounds really wimpy to say youre not going to come to work just because you have a cold. With one study showing 47 percent of the private sector with no paid sick leave, there is greater pressure to go to work sick. The article notes that there has been a push for a law requiring employers with at least 15 workers to provide a minimum of sick days each year. So where does that leave me? I can unconditionally state that good health has followed me all these years, and I havent drug my sick self to work and contaminated my colleagues. They would be all over me. My good health has followed a similar pattern in my younger years — one day missed in seventh grade, otherwise leaving with me with a flawless attendance record grades 4-12. I call it a blessing and good luck flu shots, vitamins, good diet and a smart, abiding wife keep me happy and healthy. And theres something to be said about positive thinking, a good work ethic and having never smoked a cigarette. But knock on wood. I could be sick tomorrow.

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