Home

It’s a New Record! Estimated 22.6 Million U.S. Employees Plan to Miss Work Super Bowl Monday

Published a day ago via Business Wire

Key Points:

  • Longstanding UKG absenteeism survey shows 2025 is expected to break the previous record of 18.8 million in 2023 — a game that also featured the Philadelphia Eagles vs. the Kansas City Chiefs
  • An additional 12.9 million U.S. employees say they’ll go into work late on Monday after the big game
  • 43% of employed Americans believe the Monday after the Super Bowl should be a national holiday, up from 37% in 2024

As the Kansas City Chiefs go for the record-breaking three-peat victory this Sunday, U.S. workplaces could see a record of their own on Monday: employee absences. An estimated 22.6 million1 employed Americans plan to miss work the day after Super Bowl LIX — up from 16.1 million2 last year. This breaks the previous record of 18.8 million3 U.S. employees who said they’d be out in 2023 — which, coincidentally, was the last time the Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles faced off in the big game.

The longstanding survey from UKG finds millions of employed Americans have a game plan for Monday: from the trick plays — such as calling in sick even if they’re not actually sick (about 3.2 million4) and “ghosting” their employer by skipping work without telling anyone (another 3.2 million5) — to taking a pre-approved day off (12.9 million6) or swapping shifts with a co-worker so they don’t have to work on Monday (4.8 million7). An additional 12.9 million8 U.S. employees say they’ll go into work late on Monday after the Super Bowl. This is all according to new research conducted online by The Harris Poll on behalf of UKG, which has tracked the big game’s impacts on employee absenteeism, presenteeism, and productivity for two decades.

“We launched this research years ago to start a conversation to help organizations prepare for unplanned absences — people playing hooky or ghosting work altogether — because of the Super Bowl and other pop-culture events that impact work,” said Julie Develin, senior partner of HCM advisory at UKG, which is a leading global provider of HR, payroll, and workforce management solutions. “Although a record number of employees plan to miss work on Monday, we continue to see forward progress with managers and employees having more open conversations about taking the day off, swapping shifts, or making arrangements to come in late so that the business is covered.”

More Organizations Covering the Blind Side

Despite the record number of absenteeism expected this year, the UKG survey shows increased transparency among employees, people managers, and organizations:

  • 68% of U.S. employees say they talk to their manager before they submit their time-off requests (vs. 62% in 2024);
  • 58% of people managers who plan to watch the big game this year say they planned to ask their employees directly about their time-off plans for the Super Bowl (vs. 51% in 2024); and
  • 55% of U.S. employees say they feel comfortable asking their manager for time off the Monday after the Super Bowl (vs. 50% in 2023).

A similar portion of U.S. employees are also taking a pre-approved day off this year, compared with the past two years (8% in 2025 vs. 6% in 2024 vs. 7% in 2023), and 3% of employees plan to swap their Monday shift with someone else. Only a small percentage of employees plan to play hooky and call in sick even though they aren’t really sick (2%) or ghost their employer (2%) on Monday.

These survey results suggest organizations may be better planning for appropriate shift coverage rather than scrambling at the last minute to fill scheduling gaps — especially within the frontline workforce —which is positively reflected in the UKG Workforce Activity Report that analyzes weekly shift data from over 6.2 million active U.S. employees to provide greater insight into the American labor economy.

Productivity May Take a Hit, as National Holiday Debate Drives Forward

Besides the millions of U.S. employees who plan to miss work on Monday — and the additional estimated 8 million9 who say they’ll make a game-time decision about what to do — many millions more, including people managers, may take a hit on workplace productivity.

  • An estimated 17.7 million10 U.S. employees say they will be working on Super Bowl Sunday, but they still plan to watch at least some of the game.
    • This includes more than 1 in 10 (13%) people managers working on Sunday.
  • Of the employed Americans who plan to watch the Super Bowl this year, 4 in 10 (40%) say they’ll be distracted by Super Bowl media coverage when they work the Monday after the game — a significant increase from last year’s 28%.
    • Nearly half (49%) of all people managers who plan to watch the Super Bowl say they’ll be distracted on Monday, too.
  • Over a third (36%) of U.S. employees who plan to watch the Super Bowl this year say they’ll be less productive than they normally are at work on Monday after the Super Bowl — up from 30% in 2024.

Meanwhile, 43% of employed Americans think the Monday after the Super Bowl should be a national holiday — up from 37% who said so in 2024 — and more than half (56%) who plan to watch the Super Bowl wish their organization gave them the day off on Monday after the big game.

Survey Also Uncovers the Most Popular In-Office Days

Aside from the Super Bowl, and amid more employees returning to physical workplaces across America, the UKG survey also uncovered the most common days for in-person workplace collaboration. About 80% of U.S. employees say they report to physical workplace full time or have a hybrid-work arrangement. For these employees, the most popular days in the office are Tuesday (74%), Wednesday (71%), and Thursday (69%) in the top three, followed by Monday (60%), Friday (46%), Saturday (13%), and Sunday (8%).

About 8 million11 U.S. employees this year also plan to leverage flexibility options at their workplaces and work remotely from home the day after the Super Bowl, even though they’d usually work at a physical workplace on Monday.

About UKG

At UKG, our purpose is people. We are on a mission to inspire every organization to become a great place to work through HCM technology built for all. More than 80,000 organizations across all sizes, industries, and geographies trust UKG HR, payroll, workforce management, and culture cloud solutions to drive great workplace experiences and make better, more confident people and business decisions. With the world’s largest collection of people data, work data, and culture data combined with rich experience using artificial intelligence in the service of people, we connect culture insights with business outcomes to show what’s possible when organizations invest in their people. To learn more, visit ukg.com.

Follow UKG on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, X, and YouTube.

Survey Methodology: This survey was conducted online within the United States by The Harris Poll on behalf of UKG from January 16-21, 2025, among 1,220 employed adults ages 18 and older. The sampling precision of Harris online polls is measured by using a Bayesian credible interval. For this study, the sample data is accurate to within +/- 3.3 percentage points using a 95% confidence level. For complete survey methodology, including weighting variables and subgroup sample sizes, please contact media@ukg.com.

Footnote 1: Calculation based on a U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics December 2024 report that estimates there are 161,661,000 employed adults in the United States: 161,661,000 x 14% of employed adults who plan to not go to work on the Monday after Super Bowl LIX = 22,632,540.

Footnote 2: Calculation based on a U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics December 2023 report that, at the time, estimated there were 161,183,000 employed adults in the United States: 161,183,000 x 10% of employed adults who said in the 2024 UKG Super Bowl Absenteeism survey they planned to not go to work on the Monday after Super Bowl LVIII = 16,118,300.

Footnote 3: Calculation based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics December 2022 report that, at the time, estimated there were 157,033,000 employed people adults in the United States: 157,033,000 x 12% of employed adults who said in the 2023 UKG Super Bowl Absenteeism survey they planned to not go to work on the Monday after Super Bowl LVII = 18,843,960.

Footnote 4: Calculation based on a U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics December 2024 report that estimates there are 161,661,000 employed adults in the United States: 161,661,000 x 2% of employed adults who plan to call in sick to work even if they’re not actually sick on the Monday after Super Bowl LIX = 3,233,220.

Footnote 5: Calculation based on a U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics December 2024 report that estimates there are 161,661,000 employed adults in the United States: 161,661,000 x 2% of employed adults who plan to “ghost” their work (i.e., not show up/not plan to work and not tell anyone they will not be working) on the Monday after Super Bowl LIX = 3,233,220.

Footnote 6: Calculation based on a U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics December 2024 report that estimates there are 161,661,000 employed adults in the United States: 161,661,000 x 8% of employed adults who plan to take a pre-approved day off on the Monday after Super Bowl LIX = 3,233,220.

Footnote 7: Calculation based on a U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics December 2024 report that estimates there are 161,661,000 employed adults in the United States: 161,661,000 x 3% of employed adults who say they will swap a shift with a co-worker so they don’t have to work on Monday after Super Bowl LIX = 4,849,830.

Footnote 8: Calculation based on a U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics December 2024 report that estimates there are 161,661,000 employed adults in the United States: 161,661,000 x 3% of employed adults who say they will swap a shift with a co-worker so they don’t have to work on Monday after Super Bowl LIX = 4,849,830.

Footnote 9: Calculation based on a U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics December 2024 report that estimates there are 161,661,000 employed adults in the United States: 161,661,000 x 8% of employed adults who say they plan to go into work late on the Monday after Super Bowl LIX = 12,932,880.

Footnote 10: Calculation based on a U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics December 2024 report that estimates there are 161,661,000 employed adults in the United States: 161,661,000 x 11% of employed adults who say they will be working on Super Bowl Sunday but still plan to watch at least some of the game = 17,782,710.

Footnote 11: Calculation based on a U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics December 2024 report that estimates there are 161,661,000 employed adults in the United States: 161,661,000 x 5% of employed adults who say they will work remotely from home on the Monday after Super Bowl LIX, even though they usually work at a physical workplace on Mondays = 8,083,050.

Copyright 2025 UKG Inc. All rights reserved. For a full list of UKG trademarks, please visit ukg.com/trademarks. All other trademarks, if any, are property of their respective owners. All specifications are subject to change.

Contacts