Each year, Inflexion likes to take a moment to acknowledge the beginning of 16 business days of lost productivity. In 2007, we posted that an estimated $3.7 billion was lost due to the annual NCAA tourney, an amount that nearly every firm struggling in today’s challenging economy would love to recover.

Once again, we look to our friends at Challenger, Gray & Christmas for their estimate…..(imaginary drum roll please)……

 “With as many as 37.3 million workers participating in March Madness office pools and up to 1.5 million watching games online from their desks, it is a wonder that any meaningful work is actually completed during the last two weeks of March… (and) the annual distraction could cost employers as much as $1.7 billion in wasted work time.” - Challenger, Gray & Christmas 

Big numbers indeed, and the justification for this sum (found here) is somewhat complex but well documented.  I suspect this number may be conservative, especially given that CBSSports.com reported 1.4 million users watching 2.6 million hours of live action on their free streaming service in 2007.  Given that most of the early rounds take place during business hours, one can imagine extremely slow network speeds as your colleagues quietly cheer from the cubicle next door.  In an acknowledgment to at-work viewing, the site boasts a now infamous “Boss” button that triggers a fake spreadsheet so that one can appear to be diligently pouring over complex data.  Genius….

So what should employers do?  Most organizations do try to convey some official policy on the matter, but in my opinion, this is one time of year when stoking the fun fire can really help with low morale.  Every day workers are bombarded with news of layoffs, a failing economy, high gas prices and an unpredictable stock market, so why not focus on the fact the employees are adults who some levity while recognizing their corporate accountability.  Focus on getting the work done, not how or when it gets done.  It worked for Best Buy.

Good luck everyone, and let’s keep the conversation (and brackets) going.  

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 20th, 2008 at 8:49 am and is filed under General Thoughts, Human Capital/Human Resources, Research. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.