US Employers Brace for 16M Super Bowl Sick Days | Hacker News Reader

US Employers Brace for 16M Super Bowl Sick Days

bloomberg.com

33 pointsimpish920866 comments

I really don't want the day after the Super Bowl to be a holiday. I don't like the idea of holidays supporting an event owned by a corporation.

(But if I was a boss of a corporation I'd encourage people to take the day off instead of calling in.)

Agreed. If there's any new holiday, it should be a voting holiday in November.

I tend to think the addition of Juneteenth as a federal holiday a few years ago improved American life just a little bit, and adding more would do the same. The day after the Super Bowl is a natural one to add.

Or just always have the superbowl on the Sunday before President's day. No new holiday required.

I just made the same comment. The expansion of the season now allows for that.

More days off is better though.

Two sequential 4 day work weeks is a waste though. I would much prefer to have them more evenly spread out. Summertime is great starting with Memorial Day in June, 4th of July, then Labor Day. The Spring has room for something since there's really nothing between Pres. Day and Memorial Day with a two month gap

I disagree. I find that the extra week before the Super Bowl makes me less interested in the season as a whole and less excited for the game when my team is not in it.

I think it works better as is. Just 16 million people collectively deciding that are too hung over to go to work. It's a like a mini-strike by the core alcohol consumers. What is their one demand? This day off. Do they get it? Yes.

Well, in the New Orleans area at least, plenty of people were getting Monday off anyway because of Lundi Gras and Mardi Gras.

Meaningful national value in a holiday for election day imo

The fact that election day is not a mandatory holiday blows my mind.

It underscores that the US is Capitalism first and Democracy.. somewhere much further down the list.

Because it's intentional. Can't have poor people voting in mass.

Election Day holiday wouldn't change that. Poor people work on holidays. Making election day a holiday would change little. Longer voting periods, absentee ballots for everyone like in COVID, these are things that would help.

Hey at least they’d get paid holiday overtime in that case!

I never got 'overtime' when working on holidays during all my time in food service.

A flaw in this theory is that poor people who have jobs often times still have to go to work on federal holidays because of where they work - retail and service jobs for example.

Hell, in Georgia you can't even give poor people water when they are in a long line to vote.

Not kidding: https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/26/politics/georgia-voting-law-f...

That was so shitty it's unbelievable.

The law prohibits "gifts" and giving items out for free.

Republicans hate free shit and are all about commerce though. Selling the same items for $0.01 a pop does not appear to be illegal. Set up a "ghost kitchen" out of a car parked around the corner and pretend you're a DoorDasher.

It's a political problem as some parties find it makes themselves more electable when less people vote.

Election workers would have the day off too.

If the point of having Election Day off is to give folks time to vote, poll workers are already, well, at the polls. Naturally, they will be able to vote.

Aren't poll workers entitled to national holidays off?

If this is the biggest reason you can think of why this won’t work, pretty sure we can figure this out. We seem to have figured it out for police and firefighters. Unless you think all the cops take off for Christmas Day or something?

I think he thinks that the election workers work at the polls full time as their career and thus wouldnt work on election day and we would have no election. Kinda funny but not how any of it works.

This can also be seen as incentivizing critical workers (election workers) to find a different job.

We had elections in NZ a few months ago. The in-person voting period ran for at least a week. Some voting booths only opened on the actual election day, but a good number were open for longer. Most malls I went to had them open the entire time, same with a voting booth in the airport departures lounge.

Huh, what mandatory holiday gains. The better thing would be if anyone want to take a day off for election day company can't refuse it.

> It underscores that the US is Capitalism first and Democracy..

In my first hand experience US democracy is working much better that places which have mandatory holiday for election.

I believe this is the case in some countries, Cambodia being one if I recall correctly.

I remember being there during an election, in theory none of the bars/pubs were meant to open because they didn't want people just taking the day off to get drunk. However being in a tourist spot, the bars who served the foreign travellers were open... just everyone was drinking their beer out or mugs.

Apparently this was sufficiently respecting the spirit of the law for business to continue as usual.

It really has nothing to do with Democracy or Capitalism. It has everything to do with suppressing the votes of certain demographics.

Since the US has been voting on the first Tuesday in November without a federal holiday longer than Blacks and Women could legally vote, I do not understand why you would think this

Washington state makes it so easy. My ballot is mailed to me weeks before the election date. I have plenty of time to research and fill it out. I then drop it off at one of the many official dropboxes around the city (or you can drop it in the mail for free, as long as you get it postmarked before the election date). The ballot is tracked from the time it's sent, received, and counted (I have mine set to alert me of its status via email and SMS).

I have a similar experience in CA. It's become a joy to sit down for an afternoon with a glass of wine, researching all the down ballot races as I fill in bubbles.

Farcical first past the post non-democratic election system without IDs is even more mind blowing from the other side of the pond.

My big stupid idea for American politics is for a president to promise that each budget they sign will add a new holiday. Make Congress come up with one, agree on it. I think super bowl Monday, election day, and a doubled memorial day are the most obvious, best candidates

Here is your bill. Good luck.

https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/11/t...

Or move it to Saturday.

Give us the weekend to get it largely out of our systems.

People would still want to talk about it on the first day of work with their work buddies

The true football nuts will have a chat to talk about it during the game and on the Sunday after. I also think they should put it on Saturday, but they spent so much time make "Super Bowl Sunday" a thing that people think there is some religious thing about it being on Sunday.

I think January 2nd should be a holiday

I get what you're getting at but the idea that you're allowing people not to work because they're getting shit-faced the day prior while watching a football game sounds like the wrong path to take for society. And I say this as a die-hard Chiefs fan for close to 15 years lol

Society should have celebrations. It's good for social cohesion that people do things together and have shared interests and activities. One of the consequences of celebrations is hangovers. We should make it easy for people to have celebrations, and that includes them having some hangovers, or just being tired from being up later the night before.

I don't drink or care about football, I just think new year's day and black Friday are good holidays.

I think (federal) holidays should be reserved for largely non-secular, non-corporate events/times that ideally have significant historical or cultural impact on our country. Juneteenth is an example of this, imo.

I think adding the day after the super bowl would be kind of weird due to its inherently corporate ties, but to each their own. It would be more natural if it were before presidents day monday.

I'm actually sick right now and had to come into the office because it would look too suspicious to take the day off!

Same thing here. Perception is everything.

Well now they won't believe you when you are actually sick and don't come in.

Given the expansion of the regular season, the SB is now one week before Presidents day weekend. The NFL could potentially move the season one week back and now have the SB regularly land on the Sunday during presidents day weekend.

Oh man and incorporate it into the halftime show. Have dancing Washington, Jefferson, T. Roosevelt, and Lincoln.

Just have all of the rap artists make it rain, then you'll have plenty of the dead presidents covered.

Move the Super Bowl to Saturday. More people will stay out late and stay out later. (The people that stay out and party will continue; but, so will many of the people who call it a night as soon as the game is over.)

More TV viewers Sunday night. But otherwise I agree.

Is it because superbowl is on sunday or superbowl is on sunday because the viewership is there? I do not know what is the cause and what is the effect.

You just look at the other Sundays.

Actually they legally can’t because of the Sports Broadcasting Act passed in 1961. This was done to protect high school and college football.

High school and college football are generally completely done by February

I believe they can because it falls after the new year, multiple NFL playoff games are held on Saturday.

Wikipedia says

> The act withdrew antitrust immunity for any pro football telecast if a high school or college football game is being played within 75 miles (120 km) of the broadcasting station on Friday nights (after 6 p.m.) and Saturdays from the 2nd Friday in September until the 2nd Saturday in December. This provision, intended to protect high school and college football attendance, has the effect of barring national broadcasts of NFL games on those days, since virtually all of the country is within 75 miles of at least one high school game on every Friday night in September and October.

So long as the Superb Owl is after the 2nd Saturday in December, it should be fine.

> Superb Owl

That's a great typo.

I think it is joke from Stephen Colbert. I have been calling it Superb Owl since then.

Possibly not a typo. It's a long running joke based on the NFLs extremely aggressive defense of their trademark by threatening anyone using the phrase Super Bowl to advertise anything. That's why euphemisms like "The Big Game" show up a lot.

There are plenty of NFL games played on Saturdays during the season, if you look at the text of the act it has specific periods of time where this is permitted.

College football has a different season than the NFL and this last Saturday was not part of it.

> There are plenty of NFL games played on Saturdays during the season

In 2023 they didn't play Saturday games until week 15, third Saturday of December.

Be safe, everyone! There is a flash-epidemic every year in the US around this time that has us scratching our heads. Thankfully almost everyone survives it with no long-term effects, with hangover-like symptoms being the most severe of the common symptoms. Hopefully we can find the cause of this one day.

One of the guys on my team is a huge Michigan football fan and he preemptively took the day after the championship off. “I’ll either be happy and hungover or sad and hungover”. I’d so much rather have someone be up front and honest than just call in sick

Dammit. I should have done this.

Just wait until they discover 40% of sick days are on Mondays or Fridays.

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