Thanks to the time difference in Rio many of the headline events, such as the men’s 100m sprint, take place late at night or in the early hours of the morning meaning that employers could be seeing a lot of tired looking employees around the workplace.

The excitement of the games may become too tempting to some and they may find themselves sat waiting for Usian Bolt to break yet another world record on 15 August at 2:25 without considering the 9:00 start they have the following day.

This can be a huge problem for employers as the distraction or lack of sleep could affect performance and attendance.

To overcome this employers could play highlights from the events shown the previous night and early morning in the office. This means that the employees do not miss out on any of the action and will not feel the need to stay up and skip sleep.

It is likely that employers will see a rise in sickness and lateness as people will want to watch the events or they may be ill due to post event celebrations. This should be monitored as sickness policies will still apply during this time and must remain consistent and fair across all staff.

As most of the main events are outside of work hours employers do not need to worry immensely about distractions whilst at work.

However, being flexible and allowing staff to watch events that occur during the working day, such as the men’s tennis final at 16:00, would mean employees would be happier at work. Therefore, they are more likely to be productive and produce a higher quality of work.

Some of the main contenders and events to look out for are:

• Tom Daley – Diving – Saturday 10 August 20:30
• Mo Farah – Athletics (10,000m) – Sunday 14 August 01:25
• Jessica Ennis-Hill – Heptathlon – Sunday 14 August 02:53
• Louis Smith – Gymnastics (pommel horse) – 14 August 19:34
• Andy Murray – Tennis – 14 August 16:00
• Christine Ohuruogo – Athletics (400m) – 16 August 02:45

The full schedule of events and results is available here.