With the NCAA basketball tournament upon us, office managers, foreman and supervisors are probably giving some serious thought on how to keep their workers focused on their job and not their bracket.
But is it better for a company to fight the system or just join in? The first idea might be the most logical, but the latter could bring smiles to the office with the result being a huge score for the company. Heck, even President Obama chipped in today with his bracket picks taking Michigan State over Louisville in the final game.
However, there are 1.2 billion good reasons to try and limit the damage. That is the estimated number of dollars companies will lose for every unproductive work hour during the first week of the tournament this year, according to the Chicago-based global outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. The company derived this figure from estimating that about 50 million Americans will participate in a March Madness pool.
Here is the math behind that staggering number.
A 2009 Microsoft survey came up with the 50 million figure. If each of those workers spend just one hour of work time filling in their brackets, the cost to employers in terms of wages paid to unproductive workers would be $1.2 billion, based on average hourly earnings of $24.31 reported in the most recent employment report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the company said.
The couple of days leading into the tournaments tip off on Thursday are particularly vexing as everyone is finishing up their bracket, which could mean anything from spending 10 minutes to pick all the favorites to wasting hours pouring through stats in order to create a winning bracket.
"There are distractions every day at the office, but the first week of the annual men's college basketball tournament is particularly hazardous to workplace productivity," John A. Challenger, CEO of Challenger, Gray & Christmas. "Finally, Thursday and Friday bring the actual games, which typically begin right in the middle of the work day for folks on the East Coast. Meanwhile, in California, where tournament coverage begins at 9:00 am, workers can spend the entire workday streaming games on their computer or mobile device."
The job firm noted that this figure could be extremely low. Another survey it cited bumped that figure to 100 million workers being distracted in some manner.
With all that said, Challenger did not think blocking access was a smart solution to the problem. Yes, he said, it is a short-term solution, but possibility very short-sighted as company morale could take a hit. He added, the lost productivity is not likely to have a financial impact. Instead he suggested the company should join in the fun promoting the office pool, hosting a free lunch on tip-off day or having workers wear team jerseys.
