I never used to. I think I must have had a good 7 or 8 year period where I never took a day off sick irrespective of how I actually felt. Definately a macho thing, I sneered at man flu jokes and never complained about how I felt. Just get in and do the job.
When I broke my leg I would have been in work the following week if I could have found some way of getting in. After pressuring my company for quite a while, I managed to get them to agree to let me work 2.5 days from home every week but that was a struggle.
Nowadays I’m far less butch about the whole thing. I’ll phone in sick if I’m properly sick (although only if I think my sickness will affect my work), and complain about how I feel a lot more. It’s one of the benefits of getting older 😉
Do I feel guilty when I do it?
You bet I do.