The World Cup And The Economy
It’s nothing short of a balancing act, that’s for sure. Amidst all of the excitement and raw emotion, the World Cup operates a very tight schedule: it’s 64 games that involves no fewer than 32 countries, and its crammed into just 4 weeks. During the opening group stages, fans are able to catch up to four games a day and online betting NZ sites and those around the world are sure to reap the rewards too. And that’s not even referring to an attending fan. We’re talking the world-wide working class here. Given the odds, chances are that you’re able to tune in to at least one, sometimes two, depending on your particular time zone, matches during working hours.
It’s the stuff that nightmares are made of to many employers. Two options are at your disposal: either allow your employees some down-time to tune in to at least one match a day, or face the consequences of a die-hard fan zoning out from productivity completely.
Rio Most Likely To Be Affected
In Rio and New York, the time zones are especially favorable to football fans. More than 64 hours of playing time overlap with normal working hours in these two regions. Those working and living in New York may be supporting an alternative team of choice as the United States did not qualify for the finals, but fans in Rio have a vested interest: Brazil is an absolute favourite to be bringing home the trophy in 2018.
London, Los Angeles, Paris, and Berlin will enjoy more than 30 hours of World Cup fever during working hours, and the United Kingdom Trade Union Congress has gone as far as suggesting that employers would be well advised to be lenient and provide down-time for fans so that they are able to follow the action.
The suggestion and general feel is that a happy worker is a more productive worker in any event. The TUC suggests that employs should rather than slamming down on the issues of productivity, allow flexible working time during the World Cup and instead of ruling with an iron fist, rather claim back the lost time at a later stage.
As Long As There Is No Losing
When talking money matters and general productivity, it’s interesting to note what the exact statistics are in terms of the raw financial worth of the money that is lost during the first two weeks of the World Cup alone. Bloomberg estimates that the figure may be a global loss of up to $11.9 billion in gross domestic product.
On the other hand, the fact that happy people tend to be up to 12% more productive at work does sketch a very positive picture.
Losing is, of course, the one antidote to productivity that cannot be accurately determined by even the best actuary in the world
