Super Bowl 2024: How Much Work Productivity Suffers The Week After the Big Game
Written by
Josephine Nesbit
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In the aftermath of Super Bowl Sunday, employers nationwide brace themselves for the inevitable — tired, late, hungover employees and a whole lot of call-offs. The “Super Bowl Flu” costs employers billions of dollars in productivity each year, according to new research.
A new survey conducted by the UKG Workforce Institute revealed that 16.1 million Americans plan to call off from work on Monday after the Super Bowl and an additional 6.4 million workers plan to go to work late. Over 6 million employees will even risk a workplace penalty for faking sick or “ghosting” work and not showing up.
This adds up to 22.5 million workers — or 14% of all U.S. employees — who plan to miss at least some work on Monday, including one in five managers. More than one quarter (28%) say they’ll be less productive than usual at work on Monday.
According to HR consulting firm Challenger, Gray and Christmas, employees spend an average of 10 minutes each day leading up to the Super Bowl discussing the game, managing pools and researching the two teams and their players.
But there’s good news. The study found that Super Bowl absences for 2024 are down from last year when 18.8 million employees said they planned to miss work. Also, about 10 million employees have already requested the day off, which helps companies better prepare for the Monday after the big game.
Challenger, Gray and Christmas also estimates that less work productivity could cost companies more than $6 billion in losses, Fortune reported, noting that UKG believes the losses will be similar.
Over a third of employees (37%) believe the day after the Super Bowl should be a national holiday, UKG found, but others have requested that the spectacle be moved from Sunday to Saturday. Don’t hold your breath, though.
“The reason we haven’t done it in the past is simply just from an audience standpoint,” said NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, Sportsbook Review reported. “The audiences on Sunday night are so much larger. Fans want to have the best opportunity to be able to see the game and we want to give that to them, so Sunday night is a better night.”
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