How can I persuade my boss to let staff have time off to watch a major sporting event?

There are a number of ways to allow workers to watch sport with minimal impact on the employer’s business:

• Ask to change starting or finishing times to allow you to watch the matches.
• Ask for time off during the working day to watch the event (this is known as a “split-shift”), with the time being made up at either the start or the end of the normal working schedule.
• Ask to be able to use annual leave or flexi-time where you have it.

In all these cases, stress how this can be managed without disrupting your employer’s business. Simply making modest changes to working time should mean that it’s still easy to hit any important deadlines.

It’s also a good idea to tackle the issue early. If your boss is going to make accommodation for staff in some way, it would be easiest, not to mention fairest, if this is discussed long enough in advance for them to make any changes or announcements when the time comes.

Negotiation is also easiest on all sides when there are a number of people with the same concern. If you have a union where you work, try talking to your union rep about asking other colleagues and going to management together to see if there are options that might suit the widest number of people.