Rhianna Benson
It's been hard to escape World Cup fever so far this summer.
Whether you've been refreshing your group chats, rushing home for kick-off or seeing colleagues mysteriously log on a little earlier (or later) to catch England's weekday fixtures, there's no denying the tournament has had workplaces across the UK bending the rules just a smidge.
For plenty of employees, bosses have happily shuffled shifts around, approved early finishes or looked the other way when calendars suddenly became very 'football-friendly'.
Even major investment banks including Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup have reportedly allowed otherwise office-based employees to work from home on key World Cup match days because of the overnight kick-off and expected transport disruption, as per Business Insider.
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But one mum has argued that if employers can be that flexible for a match, why does asking for the same understanding when your child is sick, or childcare falls through, still feel like an uphill battle?
And judging by the reaction to her viral TikTok, she's far from the only person thinking it.
Parenting creator Ashley Brooks-Garrett, who goes by @ashbg.motherhood on the video-sharing app, has sparked a huge online conversation after pointing out what she sees as a glaring workplace double standard.
In the controversial clip, she questions why flexibility suddenly becomes possible when England are playing in the World Cup, particularly with several of their matches falling during the working week rather than at weekends, while parents often say they're forced to fight for the smallest accommodation when family responsibilities crop up.
"Notice how all of a sudden workplaces everywhere are happy to accommodate flexible work arrangements because of a football match, yet a woman can't leave early to pick up her kids without getting sideways looks," Ashley captioned the post.
Speaking exclusively to Tyla, the social media star - and founder of Tether: The Mental Load App - revealed what first prompted her to make the video.
"It genuinely shocked me how common it became during the World Cup for people to go to work early or leave late because of the matches," she began. "I spoke to some friends about it to question how their bosses would feel about it, and they told me how supportive their employers were.
"Yet I happen to know that these same employers had rejected work from home or flexible work arrangements in the past."
She believes that's exactly why the clip has struck such a chord.
"I think the reason the video resonated is that so many parents have spent hours begging for flexibility at work only to be denied time and time again," Ashley continued.
"It's rubbing salt in the wound to watch how easy flexibility has become all of a sudden. It proves that a sick child is seen as an inconvenience, but a game is 'just a bit of fun' and 'good for culture'."
For Ashley, however, the debate isn't solely about football at all.
"It's clear that employers know how to be flexible when they want to be," she explained. "They do it readily and without resentment when the reason is cultural and communal.
"Sadly, the resistance appears specifically when the reason is caregiving, and caregiving, in our culture, is still coded as a woman's problem rather than a human one. What that tells me is that the barrier is not logistical. It is attitudinal."
Ashley continued: "Workplaces have not figured out how to be flexible for parents because they have not decided that parenting is a sufficiently legitimate reason to try."
Ashley's take on the situation quickly opened the floodgates, with thousands of other mothers and fathers sharing stories that suggested this wasn't simply a case of being offside with one employer.
One mum wrote: "I quit my job today because I requested today off last week due to childcare issues, was told no because the manager and other staff member decided they wanted today off for the match.
"So instead I went in with my toddler, cried, and handed my notice in. This world's not built for working mums or stay-at-home mums."
Another recalled: "I got huffed and sighed at the other day when nursery called me to get my sick son and now I'm on the verge of quitting because it's happened too many times."
"The way I got a friendlier reaction to leaving early for a baseball game compared to when I had to leave early to take my baby to a doctor's appointment," a third also shared.
Others claimed the same inflexible treatment spurred them to resign from their prior positions altogether.
"I quit a month ago for the same reason," one parent commented. "Flexible working was rejected and wasn't able to appeal. So just quit. Have been off sick my whole notice period because my mental health and family are more important than a company that sees me as a number."
One of Ashley's followers even claimed the lack of flexibility from a prospective employer prompted her to turn down the role.
"I had a job interview not long ago & one of the questions I asked was how well do they support working parents," she explained. "Their answer was not straightforward and beat around the bush. I didn't take the job."
Hundreds also agreed with Ashley's wider point, even without being parents.
"I'm so glad we can collectively recognise it's literally just a football match," one person wrote.
"Taking care of children is a must, watching a game isn't, you can watch the game later," penned another.
As is always the point when a woman makes a vital point, however, not everyone agreed with Ashley's comparison.
One argued that accommodating a handful of World Cup fixtures simply isn't the same as responding to childcare issues that arise throughout the year.
"This is a false equivalency," they hit out. "One is a one-off. The other is budgeting for everyone in their workplace at random requesting this."
Another agreed: "These comparisons are so dumb, the World Cup is one time every four years, leaving early every day five days a week is very different."
A third added: "World Cup happens once every four years... sometimes changing a team member's hours to be more flexible isn't doable for a business."
According to Ashley, however, these criticisms perfectly reinforce her point.
"I understand that argument, but I think it actually proves my point rather than undermining it," she claimed. "If an employer can look at a one-off cultural event and decide that the benefit to team morale and culture justifies flexibility, then the conversation is already about values and priorities, not logistics.
"The question is simply: which reasons for flexibility does this workplace consider legitimate?
"A child being sick is not a one-off event. Childcare falling through is not a one-off event. School pickup is not a one-off event."
Ashley pointed out: "These are the recurring, predictable realities of raising children, and if workplaces can find flexibility for a football match, they can find it for a parent.
"They just have to decide it is worth finding."
But Ashley's argument isn't just resonating with parents on TikTok.
To find out whether her concerns reflect a wider issue, Tyla also spoke to a handful of women's and parents' rights charities about whether workplaces should be showing the same flexibility to parents as they have during the World Cup.
Women's rights charity The Fawcett Society believes the conversation goes far beyond this summer's tournament.
"Millions of people are taking huge joy from this year's World Cup," a spokesperson noted. "And it's always great to see workplaces treat employees as people who have interests outside of work.
"But of course, we need that flexibility the whole year round."
The not-for-profit organisation rightly pointed out that many parents, especially mothers, are already sacrificing sleep and balancing caring responsibilities long before they even start the working day.
"For many women, they know what it's like to be up at 4am," they continued. "Not watching football matches many miles away, but breastfeeding babies, soothing children, caring for elderly parents. Women know what it's like to work on barely any sleep. We do it all the time."
The charity therefore argues that flexible working shouldn't be an exception solely for the football finals, but the norm.
"Employers should approach flexible working as the default," they added. "If we want parenting and domestic responsibilities to be genuinely shared, flexible working should be for all employees.
"We want to see the onus being on employers to demonstrate why a job can't be done flexibly, as opposed to the employee needing to prove why it can be.
The team concluded: "Employers have shown time and time again they can function very well with flexible working, so let's have it as default rather than preserved for special occasions."
A representative of the single parents' charity Gingerbread also echoed that same sentiment, arguing that employers have already shown they can change tactics when they want to.
"It's not just the England team who need to be nimble; the UK's two million single parents are constantly balancing the demands of their children with those of their employer," they began.
"Gingerbread welcomes the employers who have embraced flexibility during the World Cup, because research shows flexible working can lead to higher productivity, improved staff retention, and a wider talent pool when it comes to recruitment."
They went on to ask: "But the question is: why does that flexibility so often appear possible for cultural moments like a football tournament, yet remain difficult for parents dealing with everyday realities like school pick-ups, childcare falling through, or a child being unwell?"
The charity added that single parents - which research shows 90 per cent are women - need workplaces that recognise caring responsibilities as 'a normal part of life, not an inconvenience or an exception that requires negotiation'.
"The World Cup has shown that employers can adapt when they choose to," they concluded.
"We'd like to see that same flexibility continue long after the final whistle, so parents, employers and the wider UK economy can benefit from a workplace that works for everyone."
While England's World Cup campaign will eventually come to an end, balancing work and caregiving isn't a one-off fixture for millions of parents - it's a daily reality.