Employee problems of this nature are better dealt with in
advance, something employers should be considering now in
preparation for the World Cup. Employees should be told in advance
to take time off, if they want it, as part of their annual leave.
Alternatively, they could be invited to take time off now and make
it up later.
If employers do adopt such policies, they should make sure that
the policy is fair and communicated throughout the workforce. If
everybody knows at outset what the position is, they can make plans
accordingly and they have no excuses for doing otherwise.
Of today's launch, Sandy Duncan, Vice President of Xbox Europe
said: “The future of gaming in Europe starts today, and it starts
with Xbox.”
According to Microsoft, 20 games are available today and a total
of 60 titles will be available by the end of June. More games are
in development from leading publishers and developers including
Electronic Arts, Infogrames, Sega, Codemasters, Eidos, UbiSoft,
Activision and Konami.
Microsoft has faced criticism in the US for its Xbox marketing
tactics. Despite a $500 million marketing budget behind the new
console, computer games groups are concerned that the marketing
preference is being given to Microsoft's own in-house games over
those from third parties. Another concern is that Microsoft intends
to insist that those using their Xboxes for on-line gaming must do
so via Microsoft servers, even if playing third party games.
