Big money lost in NCAA office pools
$3.8 billion.That's how much money your employers are losing while you're watching the NCAA tournament and checking your brackets.
By TOM ZUCCO
Published March 16, 2006
If they played the games at night instead of during the day, like Super Bowls or the World Series, maybe we wouldn't be in this mess.
American businesses will lose an estimated $3.8-billion in worker productivity during the three-week NCAA men's basketball tournament, otherwise known as March Madness, according to the Chicago consulting firm of Challenger, Gray and Christmas Inc.
The clock started ticking after last Sunday's bracket announcement and will continue until the final game April 3.
In the meantime, the tournament presents a perfect storm for bosses trying to get a full day's work out of their employees. A field of 65 teams great and small, a passion not found on the professional level, and the constant threat of an upset, such as what occurred Thursday when little Wisconsin-Milwaukee knocked off mighty Oklahoma.
All available on a TV, computer or cell phone near your desk.
Drawing from a Gallup Poll that showed that 41 percent of Americans are college basketball fans, Challenger estimates about 58-million American workers will come down with some form of the dreaded bracketitis - a condition marked by nervousness, sudden shrieks and a compulsion to visit Web sites that update how the Dukies, Zags and Hoosiers are doing.
"This is a well established tradition in the work place," said Theresa Gallion, a Tampa labor and employment lawyer and, only while she's working, a closet LSU Tigers fan.
"But it's a very serious matter. Florida employers are losing millions of dollars in wages."
The games are a huge distraction, Gallion said, more so than even the Super Bowl. And that leads to inappropriate use of electronic media.
"All you have to do is go to ESPN.com or SI.com or CBS.com," she said. "This is, of course, time on your employer's computer when you're supposed to be working."
And it's not just computers. If fans need to be especially discreet, they can sneak peeks on their cell phones. But many businesses have at least one TV somewhere.
"I've got a note on my desk," Patrick Harrison, public relations director for HLA Group, an Ybor City marketing firm, said Thursday afternoon, "to turn to CBS in 30 minutes to watch the Florida game."
The drop in productivity may be steeper this year because CBS, which has the broadcast rights to the tournament, is offering free online video streaming of the first 56 tournament games with this added safety feature:
"Afraid management is lurking? No sweat. One click of the "Boss Button' and the live video action on the screen will be replaced by a silent ready-made spread sheet!"
Some employers take a "no harm, no foul" approach.
"Not that I recommend watching during work hours," Sean McManus, president of CBS News & Sports told reporters recently. "But I understand that people do."
Others are quick to blow the whistle.
"I don't want to see anyone in my office goofing off watching a basketball game when they are being paid to do a job," said Ronn Torossian, CEO of 5W Public Relations, a New York company that represents sports stars such as Jalen Rose of the New York Knicks. "March Madness leads to April client dissatisfaction.
"How does it look if a client walks in the office and there are 10 people huddled around a TV watching a game? Who's doing the work? Take the day off or catch the highlights on ESPN when you get home from work."
But in reality, that's not what usually happens. The focus, said Gallion, should be on accepted limits.
Most workplace consultants agree that March Madness tends to foster camaraderie and bolster morale, two qualities often lacking in the workplace.
"The advice I give employers," Gallion said, "is that if they're fearful this is going to be a problem, send an e-mail letting the employees know that we all love a good time and we think college sports is good," Gallion said. "But keep in mind the role (of the tournament) should be very limited in the workplace."
And there was one more thing. "Go Tigers," she said.
Tom Zucco can be reached at zucco@sptimes.com or 727 893-8247.