[POLL]Montclair Speaks: Who's Watching the Olympics at Work?

Whether you’re tuning in to the Olympics this year to root for Michael Phelps in the swimming finals or to watch Venus Williams take on the world’s top tennis players, you may have to sacrifice some productivity to do it.

Many of these high-intensity competitions will be broadcast in the late afternoon or early evening—London time. 

The Eastern time zone is five hours behind London, meaning that if you want to see the U.S. basketball team advance on Aug. 4, you’ll have to do it right in the middle of the work day. 

"I"ve been obsessively watching all day but got so fed up with NBC messing up the opening ceremony by putting it on delay that I'm now streaming direct from the UK with the BBC. I've never been happier!," said Jeremy Michalitsianos, head coach of the Montclair High School Crew Team.

Some media outlets are reporting that as fans either take time off to watch the games or take advantage of live streaming to watch at work, offices will be losing money. 

According to Challenger, Gray & Christmas, an executive placement firm in Chicago, during the NCAA men’s college basketball tournament this year, U.S. workers were paid $175 million in the time they took to watch the first two days, The Record in Ontario, Canada reported.

And that was just two days, compared to the Olympics’ 19 days of coverage, much of which is live.

John Challenger, CEO of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, told The Record that if half of the 142 million people working in the United States take 10 minutes a day to watch the Olympics during the workday, it is an  “enormous amount of lost time.”

But, he added, instead of fighting it, employers should embrace the fact that employees all have common ground when it comes to watching the Olympics. 

SmartMoney.com reported this week that the wasted time could result in a $650 million hit for U.S. companies. Much of that loss, according to the website, will come from employees watching games during work hours on their computers or mobile devices. Some 12% of American workers said they plan on viewing the Olympics at the office, according to a recent survey.

But—at least in Montclair—not everyone is watching the games.

"I haven't watched much at all of the Olympics," said businesswoman Christine James. "I meant to but every time I turn it on it's not one of my favorite sports (like gymnastics). So I only seem to catch the highlights."  

Will you be watching the Olympics at work? Do you think your office’s productivity will decrease because of the Olympics? Tell us in our poll and in the comments.