Hoping to persuade your employer to buy a plasma screen TV for the office in time for the World Cup? He or she might be surprisingly amenable because, as the tournament approaches, distracted staff are starting to look like the lesser of two evils to bosses who fear a sudden spate of absenteeism.
The employers' group the CBI says one in four bosses thinks big events such as the forthcoming tournament are a cause of unwarranted absence, and firms are gearing up for a spate of sickies in June. A survey published last month will have done little to ease their fears - apparently 13% of male workers and 4% of women have feigned illness so as to stay at home to watch sport.
It probably seemed harmless when they picked up the phone and put on a croaky voice, but the cumulative effect of unneeded days off is huge. The CBI says that, last year, 13% of the total 164m sick days were thought by employers to be simply workers skiving, with a cost to the UK economy of £1.2bn.
By a twist of fate, that amount is almost exactly the same as the World Cup is expected to bring to the UK economy, according to research by the Centre for Economics and Business Research. That means the loss through sickies could be offset by extra consumer spending on TVs and shirts, and a huge boost in advertising revenues during the tournaments.
But employers are focused on their own bottom line and, according to the CBI's deputy director-general, John Cridland, many of them are looking at ways of letting staff "catch big matches in the workplace". Of course, with many workforces made up of people representing a whole variety of World Cup nations, that does raise the question of what constitutes a big match.
So come on, confess. Are you planning to cook up a feeble excuse for your absence at work this summer? And bosses, what's the most unconvincing attempt to cover up a sport-related skive you've ever come across?
