My must read of the day is "2014 FIFA World Cup: Soccer Tournament Taking a Bite Out of Worker Productivity," on ABC News:
American workplaces have been faced with a new dilemma as the World Cup heats up and the U.S. continues on in the tournament: What do you do with employees who want to get into the patriotic spirit and watch the matches?
Indeed, employers are finding that they often have to make a stance. […]
Over 50 percent of working professionals watched or listened to World Cup matches at work this year, according to an informal poll conducted Monday by Captivate Network. Of the people surveyed, 69 percent reported seeing co-workers watching or listening to the World Cup, according to the poll.
Meanwhile, all this World Cup TV viewing may be taking a bite out of worker productivity.
I respect the patriotism, but this hyper World Cup infatuation is silly.
Just over 6 million people attended Major League Soccer games in 2013. The NHL raked in 21.8 million and the MLB saw over 74 million attend their games.
Fast-forward to this week and everyone suddenly loves soccer and we're going to take off work because "this game is just so important."
It would be much less annoying if everyone watched it while conceding, "I don't usually like soccer, but the World Cup has been fascinating." Yet, in D.C., no one is doing it that way. I have begrudgingly listened to countless enthusiastic and vivid play by plays of the final minutes of the Portugal game.
Spoiler alert: I don't care and most of you don't either.
I imagine real soccer fans hate you all—fake fanfare is the worst fanfare and you will toss your jerseys as soon as the United States loses.
This is an irritating phenomenon that goes beyond the World Cup. I'm convinced it's more prevalent today then ever before, and that it predominately occurs amongst 20-something urbanites who want to prove they're cultured.
Am I guilty of doing this? Of course—one time I tried to say I was a big comic fan because I thought it was "nerdy cool." Sure, I thought comics were interesting if you gave me one, and I do like the Archie comics in the grocery line, but I was absolutely not a "big fan."
I'm an obnoxious 20-something urbanite, and I'm becoming increasingly aware of it.
Having the attention span and emotional density of a fly isn't admirable. Instead of doing any thing well, whether it's developing a genuine understanding of a sport or taking meaningful action against injustice, we seem to be content to present a facade for our peers and return to total apathy when no ones watching.
That's a terrible way to be and every insincere profession of love for the World Cup (almost all of them) fills me with rage.