March Madness and the Office

Yesterday started March Madness as college basketball's annual tournament tipped off at noon. Every office in the country seems to be running brackets with workers interested in seeing which of the 65 teams will be cutting down the nets at the end and which underdogs will be busting their bracket early. So naturally, one would think productivity levels would drop to all-time lows and employees would be rendered useless...right? Well, wrong.

 

And I was pretty sure it was wrong, but I wanted some proof to back it up. Well Workforce.com debunks this myth in "Business of Management" and says that there really isn't any proof to support that claim. In that blog post, they quote this Slate article which says that although many prominent news sources have stated otherwise, there's no data to back this up (including the claim that March Madness could cost employers $3.8 billion or more!). But the truth is that games don't start until noon and the first two rounds are the only ones which are really concentrated around that time. 

 

Employees maybe spend a couple of minutes between the Monday and Thursday of that week filling out brackets, but how is this different from any other mindless forms they sit and fill out during their days? And while employees may be distracted checking scores, is that any different than a regular work day when they're distracted by a million other things? There are plenty of things to be worried about in this economic climate with your employees, but I doubt March Madness should be near the top of the list.