Super Bowl Monday: The Myth Of Lost 'Productivity'

Laura Vanderkam
Updated
Super Bowl Monday
Super Bowl Monday



This weekend brings the Super Bowl, that annual festival of traditions including overpriced commercials, seven-layer dip and a curious one for we business writers: statistics on how much productivity is "lost" due to the game.

I've seen different numbers bandied about:

  • Employers lose $820 or $850 million due to game chitchat (both stats are out there).

  • An extra 1.5 million people call in sick the Monday after Super Bowl Sunday, probably because they're hungover. (Using this argument, there is even a petition circulating now to have the White House declare the Monday after a national holiday.)

  • A time-tracking software company recently sent me a statistic that businesses lose $1.1 billion per week due to fantasy football.

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