Your Boss Is Debating Whether or Not You Can Watch the World Cup at Work
The question has sparked workplace debates about productivity, team-building and trust between employees and their managers.
Fans watch the FIFA World Cup 2022 match between Iran and USA at the BudX FIFA Fan Festival at Dubai Harbour in Dubai.
Photographer: Christopher Pike/BloombergAs World Cup matches play out in dramatic fashion, captivating international attention and even slowing trading volumes on Wall Street, bosses across the globe are faced with a dilemma: Whether or not to let their employees watch at work.
With a projected 5 billion viewers — more than half the world’s population — and many matches played during working hours, the 28-day event has some implications for the working world. Almost 40% of the World Cup hours overlap with work in the UK — defined as Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. local time — and almost half conflict with US business hours, according to an analysis by software company InvGate.