Is the World Cup decreasing productivity at work?

Football enthusiast rejoices as The World Cup is here once again. The football event happens once every 4 years and lasts 30 days and is being anticipated by football enthusiast around the world. The venue of the event changes each time it is held. This year, South Africa takes pride in being the host country.

Headache will soon ensue as employers worry about the productivity of the employees. As there is a time difference between countries, football enthusiast around the world will get to catch the live match at different timings.

In Singapore, the live telecast is usually broadcasted in the wee hours of the morning. Most will stay up just to catch the match. In doing so, they ended up going to work tired and lethargic due to the lack of sleep. As it is a month long event, most football enthusiast would have to endure the lack of sleep so as to not miss the live telecast.

This is a cause of worry for employers as productivity will decrease if the employees are not focus on the task at hand. Employees might also be easily distracted by their colleagues who might discuss about the match in the office.

In the following article, it states that “employees are likely to watch replays on their computers in the office, have post match discussions, as well as participate in online forums - particularly as the final approaches.” There is also the issue of shortage of manpower if the employees do decide to take leave just to catch the live match or are not able to get up for work the next day.

Despite the negativity when it comes to World Cup and the workplace, there are some good to it. Colleagues who might not speak to each other at work might start to interact and talk about the World Cup. They might even go out and catch the match together thus establishing a friendly bond outside the workplace.

Thus, the World Cup might not be all that bad for the workplace after-all.