If you’re reading this at work following Super Bowl festivities — congratulations! Not only did you survive last night’s snooze fest and its cringe-worthy halftime show, not to mention the myriad of hit-or-miss (mostly miss) booze ads, but by making it into work today, you’ve achieved something millions of employed U.S. adults won’t.
According to a survey conducted by The Harris Poll, 17.2 million workers are expected to call in sick today with “Super Bowl Fever” — in other words, the after-effects of drinking too much booze and eating too much junk food on Super Bowl Sunday.
The “Super Bowl Fever survey” was commissioned by The Workforce Institute at Kronos Incorporated, and was conducted online between January 9 and 11. More than 1,000 employed U.S. adults were surveyed.
The figure marks the largest-ever anticipated day of Super Bowl-related absenteeism since the company started tracking the phenomenon in 2005. Of the more than 17 million workers expected to miss work, an estimated 4.7 million will take a last-minute sick day, even though they are not actually sick.
And even if workers make it into work, productivity will take a defensive-tackle-style hit. More than 20 million employees are expected to head into work late, leave early, or work from home this Monday.
Also known as “Super Sick Monday” or “Smunday,” Super Bowl Monday is the number one sick day of the year in America. According to Kronos, one in three American workers believe Super Bowl Monday should become a national holiday. Two out of five, meanwhile, say they’d rather work on Black Friday than the Monday after the Super Bowl.
