Some people will take any good reason to miss work.
And, recovering from the Super Bowl is probably just as good a reason as any.
According to a new survey commissioned in January by The Workforce Institute at Kronos Incorporated and conducted by the Harris Poll, “an estimated 16.5 million employed U.S. adults may miss work the day after Super Bowl 50 due to the game, with nearly 10.5 million“ Americans having already requested or plan to request the day off in advance.
In other words, one in 10 U.S. workers may not go to work on Monday because of the Super Bowl (and that number may be a lot higher in Denver or Charlotte depending on the outcome of Sunday’s Big Game).
Over 10 million have already requested Monday off
Here are the highlights from the survey:
- A whopping 16.5 million Americans say they might not go to work on Super Bowl Monday because of the Sunday game.
- In fact, 10.5 million Americans have already requested or plan to request the entire day off in advance, with the rest considering calling in sick Monday morning.
- Another estimated 7.5 million Americans say they may show up late to work Super Bowl Monday.
- Super Bowl-related absences could be particularly striking for organizations with a high population of Millennial and Gen Z employees, as 20 percent of employees ages 18-34 say they may not go to work on Monday because of game.
- Of those who plan to watch Super Bowl 50, 32 percent of men ages 18-34 and 20 percent of men ages 35-44 claim they might not go to work the following day due to the game.
- Men are not the only ones at risk to catch Super Bowl Fever: 10 percent of employed women who plan to watch the big game say they might not go to work on Monday.
- According to the study, 77 percent of American workers plan to watch Super Bowl 50.
America’s “unofficial” national holiday
Let’s face it: In our modern, fragmented, technology-obsessed world, there are very few things that bring large numbers of Americans together anymore. With the exception of prime-time football games and the occasional presidential debate, audiences are fragmented and disjoined.
The Super Bowl, however, is an exception to that, and Super Bowl Sunday has really turned into an unofficial national holiday. last year’s last minute victory by New England over Seattle drew the biggest Super Bowl television audience ever — 114.5 million viewers.
That’s a lot of people doing a lot of partying on Sunday evening — and why so many aren’t showing up for work on the Monday morning after the game.
A lot of people find they’re tired from the game — and the party
A few more numbers from the survey bear this out:
- Some 15 percent of employed U.S. adults who have ever watched the Super Bowl claim the game caused them to show up late or not go to work the following day at least once in their lives.
- When asked to identify specific Super Bowl-related reasons that contributed to missing work or showing up late the following day, several trends emerged among those who have ever called in sick, taken a pre-approved day off, showed up late unannounced, or arranged to arrive late to work the day after the Super Bowl:
- Carolina Panthers and Denver Broncos fans could be most likely to request the day off in advance, as 43 percent of those who took off Super Bowl Monday as a planned absence in the past say they did so because their favorite team was playing in the game.
- Those who plan on attending a Super Bowl party are also likely to request Monday off in advance, as 43 percent cite this as a main reason for taking a pre-approved day off.
- Simply being tired from staying up late watching the game was the top reason for both calling in sick (40 percent) and showing up late (41 percent) on Monday unannounced.
- Drinking too much alcohol was also a key factor in unplanned absences, as 34 percent of people 21 and older admit to calling in sick on the Monday after the Super Bowl in years past because they were hungover, while 28 percent say a hangover caused them to be late.
It’s pretty clear from the survey: If you’re out next Monday, you’ll have a lot of company.
The Super Bowl 50 Fever Sidelines Employees survey was conducted online from Jan. 27-29, 2016 among 2,042 U.S. adults ages 18 and older. All percentages are based directly from the survey results, while estimates set forth below for the number of people who may not go to work or may show up to work late on Monday because of the Super Bowl have been extrapolated from the correlation between the survey results and the fact that there are 149.9 million employed people in America (per U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics January 2016 report).