Posted on 03/18/2008 4:30:15 PM PDT by ShadowDancer
Joining Office Pool? You're Not Alone
NCAA Tournament Pools Hurt Businesses' Bottom Lines
POSTED: 3:24 pm EDT March 17, 2008
CHICAGO -- How much work will be lost from participation in March Madness office pools, as well as the watching of the NCAA college basketball tournament games on the job?
The question arises now that team selections have been announced.
The outplacement firm Challenger, Gray and Christmas said employers could see as much as $1.7 billion in lost productivity over the next few weeks, as the tournament proceeds.
The calculation includes estimates on participation in the pools, worker wages and the amount of work time possibly spent on basketball-related activities.
Separately, CEO John Challenger noted that some businesses are trying to limit the ability of workers to stream video on their work computers to keep their systems from seeing too much bandwidth wasted.
LazerWager, an online sports, casino and entertainment gambling Web site, said in a news release that 27 percent of American employees participate in March Madness office pools. The majority of these workers are men; only 8 percent of American women have participated in the workplace pool.
Surveys show that almost half of them spend at least 30 minutes at work to fill out their brackets. With bracket pools ranging from $5 to $25 per person, office pools are now worth an incredible $2.5 billion, the LazerWager news release said.
Meanwhile, LazerWager said between $80 million and $90 million will be bet on the games in Las Vegas.
"Besides Super Bowl week, this is easily the busiest time of year for our office," said Dan Del Gato, director of operations at LazerWager.com.
This stories that come out about this time of year on “lost productivity” during things like March Madness is just total corporate BS. If the CEO plays golf is there any “lost productivity” there? Of course not. People are doing their jobs but when they have a break they might check out the ball scores. Gimme a break.
“...27 percent of American employees participate in March Madness office pools.”
Isn’t this illegal? Shame on these people (snicker).
P.S. Take Coppin State tonight and go to bed...for amusement only...
This assumes people actually worked at work before the tournament ;)
The boss’s efforts and labors are not part of productivity. He’s fixed overhead, like the light bill. The only way productivity can drop as a result of the boss going golfing is if all the workers screw off because he’s not there cracking the whip. Or if he forgets to pay the light bill because he’s at the golf course.
I think. It’s been awhile since I had a course in business.
There is some guy on the radio right now from “March Sanity” - Is is turning people in offices that run “Illegal” office pools becuase it’s a “gateway” betting..next is dog fighting and drug dealing..
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.