Episode 3 of 6 in The World Cup HR Playbook
We are in the final week of the group stage. By Saturday, the knockouts begin. If you have not already received PTO requests tied to specific matches, you will this week.
Today’s episode is the tactical playbook on time off. We cover why match timing is the real issue, how to build a fair policy, and what to do when requests start to cluster.
The structural problem
US employees do not have European amounts of vacation. The typical allocation is 10 to 15 paid days per year, and around half of US workers do not even use what they have due to workplace culture around time off. Asking for a half-day to watch football is a genuine cost in a way it is not in most of Europe.
Now layer on the match schedule. Most group stage afternoon matches kick off between 12pm and 5pm Eastern Time. The knockout rounds get worse. The Round of 16 has matches at 12pm, 4pm, and 8pm ET across four consecutive days from 4 to 7 July. The quarter-finals on 9, 10, and 11 July land squarely in the middle of working hours. Even the final on Sunday 19 July at 3pm ET is a workday for many shift workers and global teams.
The structural issue is not that employees want time off. It is that the matches they care about are happening when they would otherwise be working.
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The two failure modes
Most international employers default to one of two bad patterns.
Pattern one: blanket generosity.
“Take whatever time you need.” This sounds employee-friendly and creates immediate goodwill, but it produces three problems. Coverage gaps emerge unpredictably. Employees whose teams are not playing feel the policy is unfair. And once you have given blanket approval, you cannot easily walk it back when the knockouts arrive and requests cluster.
Pattern two: blanket refusal.
“We do not give time off for sporting events.” This produces resentment, signals that the company does not understand the culture it operates in, and pushes employees to call in sick or quietly disengage during matches anyway. You lose the productivity you were trying to protect, and you damage trust at the same time.
Both fail because they treat World Cup PTO as a special category. It does not need to be. It needs to be treated like every other PTO request, applied consistently.
A workable framework
Here is the policy structure we recommend to clients managing US teams through the tournament.
Principle one: PTO is PTO. A request to watch a World Cup match is treated like a request for any other half-day off. Approval is based on coverage, notice, and the employee’s available balance, not on whether the manager personally thinks football is a good reason to take time off.
Principle two: notice matters. The fixture list is public. Employees know which matches matter to them. A reasonable expectation is that World Cup PTO requests come in with at least 48 hours’ notice, ideally a week. This lets you plan coverage rather than scramble.
Principle three: every nationality, same rules. If you would grant a half-day for a USA match, you grant the same for an England, Mexico, Korea, or Brazil match. The fastest way to create HR problems is to be seen as favouring one nation’s matches over another’s. Consistency across teams is non-negotiable.
Principle four: flex options reduce PTO pressure. A two-hour adjusted lunch break to watch the second half costs the employee nothing in PTO and costs you almost nothing in productivity. Offering flex hours, shifted starts, or comp time for evening match coverage gives employees options that do not deplete their limited annual leave.
Principle five: communicate the policy in writing. Whatever you decide, write it down and share it with the team before the next big match. A clear policy applied consistently beats an unwritten policy that managers interpret differently.
What to do when requests cluster
The knockout rounds will produce clustering. When four US team members all want time off for the same match, you need a system.
The first move is to find out who actually needs to be off versus who would prefer to be. Some employees will be happy with a flex arrangement. Others genuinely want the day. Surface this before you start denying requests.
The second move is to set coverage minimums by team. If a customer support team needs three of five people online during business hours, you communicate that constraint and let the team self-organise around it. Most teams will work it out among themselves more fairly than you would as a manager.
The third move is to honour seniority of request when conflicts cannot be resolved. The employee who asked first gets the time off. This is a clear, neutral tiebreaker that everyone understands.
The final move is to have a backup plan for the actual day. Even with policies in place, someone will be unavailable unexpectedly. A genuine engagement crisis on the day of the USA versus another major team match should not catch you flat-footed.
A note on remote workers
If your US team is fully or partly remote, the dynamic shifts. A remote employee can have a match on in the background while continuing to work, in a way that an in-office employee cannot. This is not a problem to solve. It is a feature of remote work that you should let people use sensibly.
The thing to watch is the synchronous commitment. Remote employees who would otherwise have been on a call during a critical match window are the ones who need clear policies. Move the call or accept that attendance will be patchy. Both are fine. What is not fine is pretending the conflict does not exist.
The bigger picture
We have said this before, but it matters. How you handle the next four weeks of PTO requests will be remembered by your US team long after the trophy is lifted. Employees notice when managers are reasonable, consistent, and trusting. They also notice when managers are rigid, unpredictable, or quietly resentful of having to engage with the tournament at all.
A fair PTO policy applied consistently is the easiest way to earn trust during this period. The cost to the business is small. The cultural payoff is significant.
Next Wednesday we move from time off to the operational playbook on watch parties at work, just as the Round of 32 produces its first shocks.
See you next Wednesday!
Our US Cultural Intelligence Advisory
This series draws on the work of global executive trainer Maureen Mitchell, who leads our US Cultural Intelligence Advisory programme. Maureen runs briefings, group advisory engagements, and one-to-one executive coaching for international leaders managing American teams. If you would like to talk, find Maureen at footholdamerica.com/us-cultural-intelligence-advisory.
Read the Rest of the World Cup HR Playbook Here:
Episode 1: Managing US Employees Through the 2026 World Cup
Episode 2: Why American Workers Treat the World Cup Differently to Europeans
Episode 4: How to Run an Inclusive World Cup Watch Party at Work
Episode 5: Managing World Cup Rivalries and Banter in a Multinational Office
Episode 6: What International Managers Learned From the 2026 World Cup
Frequently Asked Questions: US PTO Requests
Get answers to all your questions and take the first step towards a US business expansion.
There is no legal right to time off for sporting events in the US. Whether an employee can take PTO for a World Cup match depends entirely on your company policy, their available balance, and coverage requirements — the same as any other time-off request.
Apply the same rules regardless of nationality. If you would approve a half-day for a USA match, you need to do the same for an England, Brazil, or Mexico match. Inconsistency across nationalities is one of the fastest ways to create resentment and HR problems during the tournament.
Start by finding out who genuinely needs to be off versus who would be happy with a flex arrangement. Set clear coverage minimums for your team, let them self-organise where possible, and use seniority of request as the tiebreaker if conflicts remain unresolved.
Not necessarily, but there are specific things to watch. Remote employees can follow a match in the background in a way office-based staff cannot, so the real pressure point is synchronous commitments — calls and meetings scheduled during key match windows. Address those directly rather than applying a blanket rule.
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