The World Cup soccer does it threaten the global productivity? It is a question that may arise after the publication of a survey conducted by Monster in early April: according to the specialist in career management and online recruitment, 19% of French workers say they are watching the World at their place of work, a little less than the global average (21%). The enthusiasm is even sharper in some of our neighbors: 25% of British and over 27% of Spaniards and Italians will follow the games while working. The number of survey participants, however, show large differences across countries: the UK (457 people) and Spanish (407) are nearly three times less likely to have responded that the French (1194).

Ultra-mediated, the World Cup is one of the most watched sporting events on the planet.Fanatical football fans and casual parties are before the football games the most essential. "I'm not a football fan, said Arnaud, network engineer for 24 years, but I'll watch the matches of the France team and the greatest teams like Spain and Brazil. But if the blow of sending many matches will be whistled at 20:30, other meetings will take place during the day. So, how employees will organize themselves to watch the highly anticipated match between France to South Africa and will be held June 22 … 16 hours?

Sites streaming and mobile phone

Fortunately, new technology makes it easy to watch the games away from home. After radio and television screens, salvation will come from streaming websites and mobile phones."I think working together to turn the match back on the computer, and I'll have a look occasionally," says Sebastian, a Marseille football addict who nevertheless adds that his "priority is work." "We will release the iPhone," says his side an employee of a company of mutual fund also defends his dedication: "we have the right to play it if everyone does his job." His team has even organized together to bet on the outcome of games.

For football fans are lucky, their boss shares the same passion (or includes) and installed a screen in the office. "We bought a TV for Roland Garros, the World Cup and also for the financial news networks anyway," says Bruno, an analyst in a asset management company, "we will light according to general opinion, and it will mute the sound, as Roland Garros.

Productivity in danger?

In these circumstances, the World Cup could have an impact on global productivity? Yes, according to the company Blue Coat Systems specializes in security and networking applications that points to the bandwidth consumed by access to streaming soccer matches, to the detriment of professional priorities bad credit pay day loans.

"Many employees are unaware of the effect of video streaming over a network, said Nigel Hawthorn of Blue Coat Systems. This is the first World Cup where there are as many opportunities to watch the games online and interact with our friends and colleagues on social networking sites.Knowing that a football match watched streaming consumes about 750MB of bandwidth – is sending more than a dozen copies of Tolstoy's War and Peace – it is important that IT professionals and human resources to communicate employees clear rules.

"A question full of traps"

But Didier Primault, economist at the Center for Law and Economics of Sports, the Economic Impact of the World Cup is a particularly complicated problem to solve. "The impact may even be positive, he notes, there is more enthusiasm when France wins after a joke among colleagues!". We can actually remember the wave of enthusiasm generated by the victory of the Blues in 1998.In general, the economist points out that many professions do not allow access to a screen to watch the game and the duration of the competition is too short, just over a month to have a real impact on economy.

"It comes full of traps" answers Didier Primault, referring to "substitution effects" that allow some sectors to benefit from slowing further. And, even noting a change in productivity during the World Cup, there is no evidence that the sporting event is the cause. Many other factors must indeed be factored into the calculation of productivity, such as unemployment or even the climate situation.

But historically, the economist says, despite the impact of the 98 World Cup, "France has a lower demand for sports entertainment" than other countries like Great Britain.Moreover, according to the poll by Monster, 61% of French respondents say they are not interested in the World Cup, the world average but well behind the Italians (39%), Irish (40%), British ( 53 %)… and especially the few hundred Malaysians who participated in the survey: 85% of them are excited by the adventures of South African players and loans to 44% to defy a ban on employers to watch the games. Beyond cultural differences, doubts about the 2010 vintage lights may prevent the French workers to dissipate this year …