Research commissioned by Cisco, provider of Cisco WebEx online meetings, revealed that 53 percent of British male workers say their employers have not made provision for staff to watch this summer’s football tournament. Consequently, if forced, 12 percent of working men would choose food poisoning or a stomach bug as their excuse to watch the football games at home. Over 1 in 10 (11 percent) British male workers said if they were to use an excuse the reason for calling in sick would be because their companies wouldn’t let them watch the football matches in the office.
Meeting Mayhem
Of the 1,485 British male workers polled by YouGov, 35 percent[1] said they would consider rescheduling a meeting at work to watch one of the matches during this summer’s football tournament. Just under half (49 percent) of men from the North West, a third (40 per cent) of Londoners and 32 percent in the South West would ask a meeting to be rescheduled if it clashed with their football team playing in the quarter finals, semi finals or finals this summer. Interestingly, 16 percent of men from Yorkshire and the Humber would move any meeting that clashed with a match they wanted to watch.
James Campanini, Managing Director of Cisco WebEx EMEA, said: “The research highlights the balancing act office managers and business owners need to make - it’s about getting the home nations to enjoy this global football event whilst keeping a productive workforce – by using a high quality collaboration tool this is possible, whether that be working from home or in the office.”
Regional trends
- Footballing fervour is strongest in the North, with almost a quarter (24 percent) of working men from the North East and 17 percent of working men from the North West saying that their most likely excuse if they chose to stay at home would be food poisoning or a stomach bug whilst men from the South East came in at 11 percent
- Other popular excuses included seven percent of British working men being likely to chose a dentist, doctor or physiotherapy appointment as their excuse to stay at home
- if they were planning to watch the football during working hours this summer
- 18 percent of working men in the North East said if they were planning to use an excuse to watch the football at home it would be because their company won’t put up a TV at work to watch the matches
[1] 12% said: Yes, I would ask the meeting to be rescheduled if my team was playing in the quarter finals or anything more important
3% said: Yes, I would ask the meeting to be rescheduled if my team was playing in the semi finals or anything more important
4% said: Yes, I would ask the meeting to be rescheduled if my team was playing in the final
7% said: Yes, I would ask the meeting to be rescheduled if my team was playing in any game my team is playing
9% said: Yes, I’d move any meeting that clashed with a football match that I wanted to watch during this summer’s football World Cup
