For many, a sick day now means telling the boss you will work from home. In between sneezing and wheezing, you answer work emails and finish urgent tasks.

Although better than going to work, it is hardly a true sick day. Stupidly, you "soldier on", when the sensible thing is to be in bed and sleep off a nasty cold.

I thought about sick days after a colleague complained about working when ill. Her company is so short-staffed that it's near impossible to have a sick day at short notice. Taking the day off means more work and stress when she returns.

How did sick leave come to this?

As a small business owner, I do not have sick leave. No work means no pay, so one cannot contemplate getting sick or having a rest. Most clients do not care anyway: "Sorry to hear you are unwell, but we still need that piece of work tomorrow!"

It's a different story in company jobs. Employees should be able to take sick leave when warranted, as per their employment agreement, without feeling as if they are expected to work when unwell or be overworked or scrutinised on their return.

It's bad enough that some companies require a doctor's certificate for sick days on Fridays or Mondays. Why should someone who is genuinely sick at the end of the working week waste time and money on a doctor's appointment if it is unnecessary?

Or be expected to answer work emails and complete urgent tasks when they are sick.

Companies are not all to blame. Technology makes staff more accessible on sick days and some cannot resist checking or replying to work emails.

Other staff love to remind colleagues and their boss that they are working while unwell. These fools have a habit of CC'ing half the company in emails when sick, so that everybody knows they put the company ahead of their health.

It seems a sick day has become a work-from-home day for too many employees. They don't feel well enough to go to work, but not so unwell that they cannot check the occasional work email and keep things running from home.

That's fine, to a point. The problem is when staff who should be in bed blur their sick day with a work day, prolonging their illness. And when employers expect staff to be available from home on their sick day, thus breaching workplace conditions.

Working on a sick day should be voluntary. A motivated employee who detests taking sick days and feels capable of some work from home should do just that. It's their choice. It's when employers expect staff to be available on a sick day that there are problems.

Surely, smart employers would encourage valued staff to take a proper sick day when warranted, not squeeze out a few extra hours of work to keep up appearances and feel poorly for the entire week.

But some managers think staff who take their full sick leave entitlement each year are lazy, weak, dishonest or not committed. Or managers set a poor example by working when sick, at the office or home, and expect others to do the same.

In fairness, lots of employees have rorted sick leave over the years and it is costly, particularly for small business, when employees have a free day off under the guise of fake sick leave. But blurring sick days and working from home is no solution.

I finished my last corporate job with months of sick leaving owing. Nobody said thanks for rarely taking sick leave or working through a few minor illnesses. Having an exemplary sick leave record barely registered with my current or future employer.

Most small business owners would love to take a full sick day off when warranted and still be paid. That people in corporate jobs give up that right, for the sake of appearances or because of penny-pinching employers, is wrong.