Employers are concerned that lack of sleep could affect performance and attendance at workDisruption in the workplace is expected due to the time difference in Rio for the 2016 Olympic Games. Many of the headline events, such as the men’s 100m sprint, take place late at night or in the early hours of the morning meaning that employers could be seeing a lot of tired looking employees around the workplace.
Usain Bolt is competing at 02:25am on 15th August, an early start for those who want to watch him perhaps break another world record when they have to be at work for 09:00am, bright-eyed and bushy tailed.
A suggested way to overcome this problem would be to play highlights from the events shown the previous night and early morning in the office. This means that the employees do not miss out on any of the action and will not feel the need to stay up and lose out on essential sleep.
It’s also expected that employers will see a rise in sickness and lateness as people will want to watch the events or they may be ill due to post event celebrations. This should be monitored as sickness policies will still apply during this time and must remain consistent and fair across all staff.
As most of the headline events are outside of normal working hours, employers do not need to worry immensely about distractions whilst at work.
However, being flexible and allowing staff to watch events that happen during the working day, such as the men’s tennis final at 16:00, would mean employees would be happier at work. Therefore, they are more likely to be productive and produce a higher quality of work. A fair and balanced approach should be adopted throughout these next few weeks with a focus on productivity and attendance, while still being reasonable and fair throughout the working day.
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