March Madness, it’s every sports fans favorite time of the year and business owners’ nightmare. Employees spend hours surfing online sites, researching all 64/65 teams in hopes of picking that winning bracket. They use the company scanners and printers to fill in their brackets. In between creating TPS reports for their boss they also check sites like ESPN and CBS Sports for scores and updates. Some of these brave employees even stream live games from work (not me of course).
What does all this wasted time mean for employees? Well for starters productivity is down during this three week period. Employees make fewer calls and send less e-mails. According to the consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, it’s estimated that March Madness could cost employers as much as $1.7 billion in wasted work time over the course of the tournament. The study also found that employees spent an average of 10 minutes a day checking scores or updates from work. I find this estimate to be on the conservative side since none of my friends took part in this study.
Another problem that businesses are faced with during the tournament are busy servers and slower internet speeds. With many employees streaming live games and refreshing their browsers every 30 seconds for score updates, many systems aren’t equipped to handle the surge in activity. Slower Internet connection can be a serious problem for companies who depend on systems to log customer data or provide an online service.
On the positive side, March Madness brings a new excitement into the workplace. It also brings a fun social aspect back into the office and provides grounds for a good water cooler conversation or two. The tournament sparks office rivalries with different employee Alma maters. And usually, an unsuspected worker emerges victorious from the company pool.
March Madness is the one time of the year when most employees engage in sports gambling. According to Las Vegas, the NCAA tournament is the second largest sports betting event behind the Super Bowl. Most employees take part in multiple brackets to better their chances of cashing in at the end of the tournament. Every game has a significant meaning to person’s pool, which provides excitement as well as stress.
This March Madness we’ve already witnessed buzzer beaters and a double overtime game. We’ve seen two number 1 seeds go down and a number 14 seed knock off a number 3 seed. And even crazier, we watched an Ivy League school and a Mid-major turn most brackets upside down. If the true definition of March Madness is what you want to seen, then this tournament has not disappointed. On any given day any one of the 64/65 teams selected could win. This madness is what myself and millions of other workers look forward to every spring and what many business owners can’t wait to see end.
