Companies in the UK and in Latin America better ready themselves for a month of low attendance, low productivity and low morale if they don’t find a way to let employees view World Cup matches this summer if a recent survey conducted by YouGov is to be believed.  

The survey produced results from members of the work force in the UK, Mexico and Brazil and showed just how willing employees were to miss work or watch matches on mobile devices while at work as to not miss any action. In the UK alone, the survey proved 40% of workers would miss work to watch a game that was currently being played. 17% even said they’d reschedule a meeting with their boss if it meant taking in a game.

In Brazil and Mexico, 30% said they’d miss out on vital training or a business lunch while 20% would blow off their boss to catch their team. Not surprising results to me in the least. In fact, I’d initially thought numbers would be higher.

So what’s a business to do? In the US, employers are used to this kind of behavior each and every March when the NCAA College Basketball Tournament tips off. Many will schedule vacation or paid time off in advance to avoid these such situations while others rue their bad luck when they miss out seeing their team play. In the NCAA Tournament, like the World Cup, multiple games are played throughout the day at odd and early hours which force fans of college basketball to lie, sneak and feign illness quite frequently.

The survey concludes by showing that the vast number of workers in the UK, Mexico and Brazil believe the way to keep workers at work is to show matches there, while it would also boost morale among employees.

Working full time myself, at least to start the tournament, I’ll be using my DVR to record matches every day while I attempt to avoid blogs, twitter and pretty much the Internet in general in hopes I won’t find out match results. The games broadcast in HD on the ESPN family of networks will be all the more enjoyable to me when I’m able to watch them after work with friends and family.

If it was up to me, I’d take the whole month off to enjoy the tournament live in it’s entirety. Because let’s face it, for the next month straight I’ll have nothing else on my mind except football anyway, my productivity and desire to preform at work will severely suffer as I try to analyze the previous days matches and somehow convince myself that England will win the tournament.

So what should employers do? If you live in the UK, has this been brought up at your work? If you are to remain at work, will you be attempting to watch online or from your mobile device? Leave a comment in the section below and good luck.