How to Get Out of Work to Watch FIFA World Cup

The FIFA World Cup. It only comes once every four years.

The most anticipated athletic event aside from The Olympics, The World Cup garners billions of viewers and inspires thousands of bar fights. This year The World Cup takes place in Brazil. For Brazilians, soccer is a kind of religion. Most schools throughout the country are holding midyear vacations for the inaugural game. During the tournament, banks are only open for four hours a day, and federal employees are dismissed at 12:30pm on days when Brazil is playing. Unfortunately, if you’re a soccer fan living in the US, you won’t receive the same privileges. Here are some cunning, crafty stories from actual stateside World Cup buffs on how they’re going to successfully get out of the office to watch the game.

David, risk consultant, “I resigned. I had been thinking of changing careers for a long time and had applied and gotten into grad school months earlier. I figured that if I quit, I could spend the next month hanging out with my friends just watching the games and relaxing before I start school in the fall. My boss totally believed me and still wrote me a reference!”

Bridget, sales executive, “My husband and I got married nearly ten years ago but we never had a honeymoon. I knew that Greece had a good chance to make it past the group stage, and felt like this would be the ultimate opportunity to celebrate our marriage and see my team play. In March, I started mentioning to my supervisor that I’d accrued enough vacation time to take off 11 days. Even though June is our big sales season, my boss understood and we immediately bought our tickets for São Paulo.

José, project coordinator, “I scheduled a fake root canal. I hadn’t called in sick once and felt like a root canal was an unquestionable excuse for taking a few days off. I’ve only been at my company for a month and a half so I’m only eligible for sick time not vacation time. Hopefully no one realized that I’m leaving right when Italy’s playing. I’ve been wearing myBalotelli jersey into the office a lot lately.”

Kevin, development manager, “I work for a really cool startup that lets you make your own schedule after you’ve been employed for a certain amount of time. Most of Argentina’s games are in the morning, so for the next month I’m working a 11:30-7:30 day. My boss is totally cool with it and we’re actually going to watch a couple of games together.”