The ultimate guide to watching the World Cup at work

3. So you work in an open floor plan office

This is good and bad. You’re not going to get away with putting the game up in a window or tab because there is no such thing as personal space. Trying to protect your own interests is frowned upon, and everything you’re working on is public knowledge. It’s all out there. If you’re trying to hide something, you’re dumb. You’re really dumb and bad and dumb.

But! The feeling of mandated community can be used to your advantage. You can go a different route. Instead of trying to cover your tracks to watching on your own, put it out in the open for everyone! There’s probably a TV somewhere that displays little platitudes and words of wisdom rotated throughout the day. See if they’d be cool with getting the TVs showing the games instead. Maybe get some signatures on a petition to show it’s the desire of the office at large. Forge them if you have to. Just give the impression that it’d boost company morale or some other nonsense.

If there is no TV like that, even better! Bring in your own monitor, hook it up, and get the games going. Don’t even get cleared to do it. It’s better to ask forgiveness than permission or whatever. If they see you putting in this effort for the rest of the work team, they’ll maybe second guess trying to make you stop. Bring in little cupcakes with soccer balls painted on top, and make it into a big thing. At that point, they’d be a bunch of jerks to get in your way.

Now, this may only work for one day, so pick that day wisely, but you might be able to push it further. Starting a company pool for the outcomes of the games might be a good thing; that way the communal interest doesn’t wane. The goal is to keep general interest up for as long as possible.