The productivity lost during the World Cup is real, but it is such a bad thing for businesses?

As the FIFA World Cup in Brazil rolls on this year, billions of people are tuning into watch the world’s largest sports tournament. While interest is greatest in the 32 countries whose national teams are playing in Brazil, football fans from nearly every country in the world are tuning in to see the best players in the world play the most popular sport in the world. Given the level of global interest, how much productivity are businesses losing due to the World Cup around the world?

It’s no secret that major sporting events such as the Olympic Games, the World Cup, Wimbledon, and so on, draw a massive amount of interest from both sports fans and casual observers alike. With massive global interest in these sports, especially football, people from every single country in the world stop what they’re doing to tune in and watch.

Unfortunately, World Cup matches can’t always be played on weekends or in the evening. With global interest what it is, there are always large parts of the world where games will be played in the middle of the work day, no matter what the local starting time is. And let’s be realistic, when your home country is playing in the World Cup, the most important football event on the planet, you aren’t going to miss it just because you need to answer some work emails.

With that being said, it is hard to judge how much lost productivity that worldwide businesses suffer differ huge events like the Olympics or the World Cup. Anecdotal evidence from places like England, Mexico, and Australia seem to indicate that there is some productivity lost. But for the host nation, Brazil, there is no denying that the World Cup is affecting business.

For organizational and traffic purposes, as well as national pride and morale, the government of Brazil has announced national holidays for those days with big matches, especially when Brazil itself is playing. Additionally, when the national team plays, many businesses across the country simply shut down, instead of making a feeble attempt to keep its employees at work.

Due to losses in productivity and the additional cost of paying employees who have to work during the national holidays, Brazilian firms are estimated to lose as much as US$13.5 million over the course of the month-long tournament. Although government officials claim that income from tourism and the cup will more than equal that number.

That being said, is all this lost World Cup productivity a bad thing? Certainly, US$13.5 billion in losses in one country alone would have to equal trillions of dollars lost around the world, right? Maybe that’s true, but evidence from the United States seems to indicate that the negatives of lost productivity are made up for in employee morale and loyalty.

Looking at the March Madness basketball tournament in the United States, the Washington Post discovered that the lost productivity numbers themselves are likely exaggerations, as it’s hard to get specific facts on who leaves work to watch sports. Moreover, employees who get to watch sports, cheer for their team or country, and then head back to work have higher morale and are generally happier.

So, while the World Cup is doubtlessly a strain on productivity for some businesses, the world taking a holiday for four weeks every four years may not be such a bad thing.

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