5 Tips for Employers to Avoid a Fumble Ahead of Super Bowl Sunday

More than 100 million people are expected to watch Super Bowl LVII on February 12 – including many of your employees. Maybe they’re avid fans or perhaps they’re simply tuning in for the commercials or halftime show. Either way, your employees will likely be excited about the event and may participate in related activities before, during, and after the big game. Will they be placing bets? Donning their team’s gear? Engaging in banter? Calling out “sick” on Monday? Attending the championship parade? You should be prepared to handle these scenarios before the Chiefs take on the Eagles at State Farm Stadium in Greater Phoenix in just a few weeks. Here are five key tips to help you win this Super Bowl Sunday regardless of the game’s outcome (and some bonus predictions from our authors).  

1. Set Expectations and Manage Productivity

Leading up to the game, sports fans in your office will be spending time online reading about the teams, texting their friends with their predictions, or maybe even placing online bets instead of working. While it is helpful to create and enforce a policy restricting the kinds of activities that your employees can perform on business computers and company-issued smartphones, realistic employers know that most employees will easily be able to skirt these prohibitions by using personal smartphones and tablets.

Instead, you should enforce productivity standards in the days leading up to the game just like you should be doing every other business day. Many companies recognize that their workers will inevitably spend part of their working day on personal business, whether it is running an errand, shopping online, making a phone call, or chatting with each other. Knowing this, most companies ultimately care about whether the assigned work is getting done and will not micromanage every moment of the day. Ultimately and — especially in companies that employ mainly salaried employees — it is better to have happy employees (which will in turn make them more productive) rather than coming down harshly on an employee who has one or two relatively unproductive days before or after the Super Bowl.

Of course, certain hourly workers and other employees have a responsibility to remain diligently working at all times they are on the clock. No matter your situation, just make sure to consistently enforce your productivity standards and associated policies.

2. Review and Communicate Your Workplace Gambling Policy

The biggest question most employers have about big-time sporting events like the Super Bowl or March Madness is whether workplace gambling is legal. Many offices will start a small betting pool where participants are encouraged to “buy a square” or otherwise place wagers on various aspects of the game, and sometimes this form of gambling is encouraged or even organized by management. Is that legal?

Several federal laws prohibit wagers on sporting events, and the actions become much riskier if workers place bets across state lines. But the odds of federal enforcement action against low-end office pools are pretty minimal.

State laws vary around the country, although many permit social gambling on events like the Super Bowl as long as the organizer is not skimming money off the top of the pool, the pool is limited to people you know, and the dollar levels remain relatively low.

That being said, employers should have bigger concerns than whether the authorities are going to conduct a raid on their premises when it comes to gambling in the workplace. Instead, you should be more concerned about problems that can befall an office when large amounts of cash are floating through the building. Also, some workers might feel pressured to join despite personal or religious objections they have to gambling, or just because they don’t feel like they can afford to join in. Finally, some of your workers might be “sore losers” and not react well to losing money to a coworker, leading to toxic discord in the workplace.

In order to address this situation, you should develop a policy addressing gambling in the workplace and enforce it consistently. If you already have one in place, now would be a good time to send a communication to your employees reminding them of your policy. And given the rise of legal online betting in the last few years, you might want to consider whether your workers are permitted to use company devices to access gambling sites or apps. By reinforcing the rules you have in place that you believe are best for your business, you reduce the likelihood of any violations.

As an easy solution to many of these problems — and recognizing that some segment of your workforce will want to have a stake in the outcome of the game — you may want to consider starting a voluntary workplace pool that requires no entrance fee. You can buy prizes with company funds and hand them out to the winners, turning what could be a problematic event into a morale booster.

Speaking of gambling, here are our authors’ picks for the big game:

Matthew Anderson, Charlotte (but a Kansas City native): Chiefs win 31-27.

Ivy Waisbord, Philadelphia (Fly, Eagles Fly!): Eagles win 27-23, Jalen Hurts wins MVP, Nick Siriani has yellow Gatorade dumped on him, and the national anthem comes in under 1 minute and 55 seconds.

Corina Johnson, Sacramento (repping the Niners): I predict a toe-to-toe game resulting in an Eagles win: 41 to 35. Jalen Hurts will have two touchdowns. Rihanna is going to blow us away at halftime with Eminem and Calvin Harris as surprise guests.

Tanner Hosfield, Irvine (but a bandwagon Bengals fan once the Chargers are knocked out): Chiefs will win…the coin toss. Eagles will win the game 28-20, with Jalen Hurts getting SB MVP honors after Patrick Mahomes is announced as the regular season MVP a few days before the game.

3. Remind Employees About Conduct and Dress Code Standards

Especially if your offices are located in the Kansas City or Philadelphia areas, you may want to address your company’s dress code leading up to the game. If you are going to allow workers to wear Patrick Mahomes or Jalen Hurts jerseys, or otherwise dress in their team colors, make sure you are clear in your communications as to what types of team gear will be permitted.

Employees should understand that while they are encouraged to support their team, they should still dress in appropriate attire. Consider whether any safety-related concerns could arise depending on the type of work that your employees are conducting.

Moreover, and particularly if you have employees who are rooting for opposing teams, you may want to remind them to keep their banter professional and that all policies on work-appropriate conduct still apply.

4. Be Prepared to Manage Absenteeism After Game Day

Looking ahead to the day after the game, as well as the day of the championship parade, you should prepare for some inevitable absences, no-call/no-shows, and workers arriving late. A recent survey on this subject found that approximately 16.5 million workers call in “sick” or use PTO the day after the Super Bowl, while another 4.4 million workers show up late. And most employers know that unscheduled absences are far more costly to a business than planned time off.

The ones who do show up are often distracted by water cooler chats, re-watching highlights from the game (or their favorite commercials), reviewing blogs and media stories about the biggest plays on the field, or nursing their hangovers. All of this adds up to diminished productivity.

When it comes to the workers who do show up, make sure you enforce your productivity standards just like you did in the days leading up the game, allowing some realistic forbearance on Monday morning. If you employ workers in jobs that include safety-related responsibilities, make sure to monitor them to make sure that the “case of the Mondays” isn’t a legitimate hazard that might require drug or alcohol testing or further investigation. And if you happen to work in the city of the losing team, feel free to cut your workers some slack and let them wallow in misery for a few hours.

As for the absent workers or the latecomers, you will want to enforce your attendance policies consistently. At the same time, you should keep in mind any state or federal leave laws that might protect absent workers or place administrative requirements on you before you take disciplinary action. Where allowed, you should consider requiring “sick” employees to provide medical certification documenting the reasons for their absences, which may dissuade workers from trying to pull one over on you. If you operate in a state with a paid sick leave law, you should consult your state’s law to ensure that it does not restrict such a request.

5. Be Realistic, Fair, and Consistent

As mentioned above, the key is to be fair and consistent. No matter your situation, the most critical concept to keep in mind is to ensure you and your managers are enforcing your productivity standards and associated policies in a consistent manner. Be realistic when addressing these situations, and make sure you don’t come down exceedingly hard on one worker who is essentially doing the same thing as a coworker who escapes your scrutiny. By treating workers in an inconsistent manner, you may be starting down the path to a discrimination claim.

Conclusion

Following these steps should help you avoid employment fumbles and enjoy the Super Bowl this year instead of worrying about the impact it will have on your workplace. We will continue to monitor developments related to all aspects of workplace law. Make sure you are subscribed to Fisher Phillips’ Insight system to get the most up-to-date information. If you have questions, contact your Fisher Phillips attorney or the authors of this Insight.