Your boss is debating whether or not you can watch the World Cup at work

Argentina’s forward #10 Lionel Messi takes part in a training session at Qatar University in Doha on Dec 8, 2022, on the eve of the Qatar 2022 World Cup quarter-final football match between The Netherlands and Argentina. In Brazil and Argentina, where football is powerful enough to turn match days into unofficial holidays, some expats turned to social media to complain about how that translated into no-school days. — AFP

As 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 five 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 9am to 6pm local time – and almost half conflict with US business hours, according to an analysis by software company InvGate.