As a football fan and an ex-employee I looked forward to big sporting events with a mixture of anticipation and dread.
The fan: Anticipation because there's always the chance that our team - whether that's team Murray, the Scottish curling team or, as we are about to experience, the England football team - doing well.
The employer: Of course, when you've got 4 weeks and 2 days of continuous football in the middle of summer, there's every possibility that schedules are going to become a nightmare.
On the one hand you have to consider legitimate requests from staff and allow them some flexibility and watch live games but you will also have to maintain some kind of structure to the working week in order to keep profits and schedules on target.
Of course in today's world of always connected portable devices it's possible for staff to watch games on-site. How many of you reading this would have attempted - as I did - to watch a football match on a mini portable TV in a van wired up to a car battery?
There's also the unauthorised absence to deal with. With the likelihood of the weather being warm and sunny (as it is currently) a few beers and the excitement (we hope) of England doing well, there will, no doubt, be a great deal of staff around the UK throwing a sickie.
Believe it or not, even non-footballing fans, who either get the bug during the tournament use the opportunity to take a few hours off whilst others are watching the games.
If you are a fan and a boss then you're lucky because England's first match is on a Saturday. The second match is at 8.00pm on Thursday 20th so no need for early finishes or re-scheduling - although there may be a few late starts the following day if the beers flow.
Of course it's not just watching England that may cause problems. With so many other games to be played there's the possibility for constant disruption.
As a fan I hope England do well but as a boss I'd be nervous...especially as the Wimbledon tennis tournament is being played out at the same time.
How do you deal with schedules?
Here's how England's game pan out:
GROUP D - URUGUAY, ITALY, COSTA RICA, ENGLAND
- June 14 Fortaleza, 2000: Uruguay v Costa Rica
- June 14 Manaus, 2300: England v Italy
- June 19 Sao Paulo, 2000: Uruguay v England
- June 20 Recife, 1700: Italy v Costa Rica
- June 24 Natal, 1700: Italy v Uruguay
- June 24 Belo Horizonte, 1700: Costa Rica v England
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It's a good point, I remember 1978 when most of us went down with Wold Cup fatigue after a week, turning us into walking zombies. 11 pm kick offs were the killer........definately not watch the late one......maybe I'll just watch the first 20mins........oh I'll just see it to half-time.....no, what I'll do is see how the second half starts off........sod it may as well see it to the end!!
I'll publish a graph to show LJN's visitors for the World Cup period.
I suspect there will be a dip:)
Whats this world cup you are talking about? If it was ping pong then maybe I would be interested.
Multi tasking - LJN, Spain & Holland and UK's STRI's view on the pitch for Saturday England v Italy pitch keeping the LJN visitor numbers up just hopefully...
Might have to start work earlier to catch some of the 5pm games.
I'll be watching England tonight:)
Heard a great pre-match superstition on the radio this morning - 'I go to bed early, then wake up early & find out that England have lost'
Surely you mean tradition? :-0)
I'm optimistically hoping not...
Phil Voice said:
Me too.
Here's hoping England play attacking football. I'm really looking forward to watching Stirling again. A real breath of fresh air.
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