Get set for the greatest show on earth
ItÂ’s about to begin and itÂ’s time to get wildly passionate about it. If you donÂ’t know what we at JobStreet.com are talking about, hey, where have you been?
ItÂ’s the World Cup, buddy, the one thatÂ’ll be starting in Korea and Japan. What will you be doing? Act as if nothing extraordinary is happening, or will you join soccer fans worldwide to cheer on their favourite teams? ItÂ’s the World Cup, buddy, the one thatÂ’ll be starting in Korea and Japan. What will you be doing? Act as if nothing extraordinary is happening, or will you join soccer fans worldwide to cheer on their favourite teams? And being Asians, we dare say that some are prepared to lose the shirts off their backs too! Not that we condone such gambling activities, but Asians already have such reputations worldwide.
What we know for certain is that in workplaces around the globe, productivity will take a tumble. In fact, the great World Cup showdown between bosses and soccer has already begun. But it will be no contest, really. We already know who will win, hands down.
At the last World Cup in France, for instance, dozens of financial traders in the Royal Bank of ScotlandÂ’s London dealing rooms slipped away from their desks, went out the door and vanished. In Sao Paulo, Brazil, the phones fell silent, email volume fell to a trickle and most of the workers went home.
More than one billion people worldwide will be following the televised image of a small white soccer ball as it bounces around a field in Korea and Japan. From Stockholm to Singapore, workers will be calling in sick (itÂ’s called World Cup flu), slipping out for two-hour breaks or rigging their personal computers to flash sports news.
It is estimated that one-third of male employees are planning to take time off to watch the games over the next few weeks, compared with 8% of women. Over half of those will take paid leave, one in four will take advantage of flexitime, and 16% will take unpaid leave. Around 3% will call in sick.
In countries where the games are broadcast live in the middle of the night - Asians are lucky this time: weÂ’ll get to watch the games on prime time - companies are preparing for a sleep-deprived work force. During the 1994 Cup finals, industrial production fell so sharply in China that the government media requested that workers stop sleeping late.
In South America, they are already preparing for a pyjama party. The huge time zone difference means that the action in Korea and Japan takes place in the South American small hours. The earliest kick off time is 1.30am and the latest, 8.30am.
In Argentina, Diego Maradona is coming to the rescue. The man who once got the Argentines out of their seats now has the task of getting them out of their beds. Their soccer hero has filmed a commercial in which he plays an elfin-type figure who wanders round ringing on doorbells to make sure everyone wakes up in time to watch Argentina. ThatÂ’s like a kind of footballing Father Christmas.
In Ecuador, an economist in Quito is estimating that nationwide productivity in June will be inversely related to their countryÂ’s success in Asia, projecting that output during first-round games will be roughly half that of a regular workday. "If we go to the second round, people will work 25% of the day. And if we get to the final -- hard to imagine as that is -- the country will be paralysed," he says.
