Avoiding World Cup absenteeism

The staging of the World Cup in Korea and Japan has created a series of problems for many businesses. The time difference has meant that many workers may be inclined to bunk off work in order to watch the matches live. So what can you do to avoid this problem.

The daytime matches are leading many employers to brace themselves for a rash of dubious sick notes from football-addicted staff who would rather be sitting on the sofa at home watching the TV than sitting at their desk working at their computer.

Patricia Hewitt, Trade and Industry Secretary, said that staff should be allowed to watch the match wherever possible, and allowed to make up time later, "the last thing they (employers) need is the entire workforce taking a sickie on the day of a big match."

However, before you suffer a mutiny and find yourself the only person at work there are a number of things that you can try in order to minimise the disruption to your business.

Time off If you have too many staff who all want to take the same day off in order to watch the match then holding a ballot - with all the names in a hat and picking at random - might be the fairest way to deal with the issue.

Flexible working Allow staff longer lunch breaks, or let them come in late, according to the time of the match and let them make up the time later. Other staff might be willing to help fill in the gaps.

Provide a TV or radio If you have space perhaps you could provide a TV or radio and allow staff to watch and again make up time or allow short breaks to visit the TV room at regular intervals.

Team spirit By allowing staff to wear football shirts, display wall charts, run sweepstakes and so on helps foster team spirit and earns the employer goodwill. Banning football is much more likely to dampen productivity and make workers resentful.

Equality Whatever policy you adopt you must ensure that it is applied fairly to all employees. For example, it might amount to sex discrimination if a woman employee was refused time off because she is a woman and it is presumed she didn't enjoy football. Or it could be race discrimination if an Italian or German employee weren't given the same opportunity to watch a match of their home country.