Come on England! (?)
The World Cup kicks off on June 9 and runs for a month. What should you do about employees who phone in sick or fail to turn up on match days?
Requests for time off. If an employee requests time off to watch one of the matches, there’s no point in turning it down on principle alone. If you do, you’ll end up with an unhappy employee who may well take the time off anyway. So, consider the following options:
1. Agree that they can take the relevant days off either as annual leave or as special unpaid leave. If you only allow a set number of staff to be off at any one time, apply a first-come-first-served basis or some other fair criterion.
2. Operate a flexi-time system on match days so that staff can watch the matches by, for example, allowing them to come into work later or leave earlier and make the time up.
3. Allow them to listen to the radio or watch the television at work (in designated areas and probably away from customers etc.). Either way, make it clear this as a gesture of goodwill and any abuse means the privilege will be withdrawn.
Absenteeism. Some of your employees may be tempted to either phone in sick on match days or simply not turn up for work at all. Take preventive action now by issuing staff with a memo or e-mail which makes clear your policy on allowing them to watch the World Cup. State that if employees turn up late for work or fail to turn up at all on match days when prior time off has not been authorised, then it will be treated as a disciplinary matter. Finally, require employees who phone in sick on key match days (or post match days - suffering with hangovers?) to provide medical evidence of their sickness absence, for example, proof that they visited their GP or a doctor’s certificate. If you do this, operate your policy consistently: don’t just apply it to those whom you suspect have been watching the football. You’ll also have to bear the cost of doctor’s certificates.
Key dates. England’s three group matches are on Saturday, June 10 at 15:00, Thursday, June 15 at 18:00 and Tuesday, June 20 at 21:00. All of these times are based on Central European Time, which is one hour ahead of British Summertime.
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