All eyes on the World Cup

All eyes on the World Cup

Nowadays World Cup fans have a myriad of options when it comes to watching the games, and to avoid absenteeism businesses are feeling obliged to provide ways to watch the tournament.

June 21, 2010 5:20 by Sam Potter

When Kipp launched last week’s poll question, we missed one option. We asked, “Where are you watching the World Cup?” and the possible options included: at home on TV; out on the town; anywhere via the Internet; South Africa, baby; and (the obligatory answer for those who aren’t interested) what’s the World Cup?

We should have added “at work.” Because it seems that, with a number of games taking place during the day in many time zones, companies across the world are trying to avoid absenteeism by allowing employees to watch the matches.

Bloomberg reports that in the UK, companies such as Kellogg are making preparations against a threatened exodus of staff when England face Slovenia in Wednesday’s decisive FIFA World Cup match. The game kicks off at 3 pm local time, which cuts deep into the working day at the company’s offices in Manchester. So, the 660 employees will be able to watch the match in the building’s atrium.

“With many World Cup games taking place during working hours, European companies must decide whether to make provisions for staff wanting to follow their team,” says Bloomberg. “Those that don’t risk absenteeism or clogged Internet networks as workers log on to live streams of the games. The cost to U.K. businesses in terms of lost working hours may reach 1 billion pounds ($1.48 billion), according to the Chartered Management Institute.”

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Tags: absent, bar, business, café, companies, England, home, internet, kick off, pub, screens, sick note, Slovenia, South Africa, television, town, viewing, watching, world cup