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Sports See other Sports Articles Title: Work? Bring on Hoops Employers May Lose Money, but See Big Morale Gain During March Madness If you believe the estimates of how March Madness can drain office productivity, the corporate world could be in for a tough few weeks. One group forecast that employers could lose $1.2 billion or more during the 19-day NCAA basketball tournament while fans tweak their office-pool brackets, checks scores on Web sites, watch games on television or tune into free streaming video of the contests on their office computers. But the productivity-loss guesstimate may be a bit dramatic, like one of those last-second upsets the event, which launches today, is famous for. "I see a lot of people doing pools around the office, and it's one of those events like the Super Bowl," said Dave Karraker, spokesman for Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc. of Foster City, a video game and console company that produces its own college basketball game. "It's bringing people together on common interest." Karraker said the company isn't going to "do anything official" around the coveted event, such as setting up in-house pools or showing the game on office big-screen TVs. On the other hand, "we're definitely not sending out e-mails reminding people to stay focused," he said. Some workers may spend up to two hours a day following tournament games, according to John Challenger, president of outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, which put out the $1.2 billion productivity-loss estimate. The group used wage data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and MRI CyberStats data on the number of people with access to theInternet at work to come up with the number. But even if the tourney cuts into worker output, Challenger thinks the $1.2 billion is "a good buy for employers." "We think it's fun and the employee camaraderie is a good thing," Challenger said. "There's no need to be sitting over employees' shoulders making sure they're at the grindstone." Challenger said there used to be a "really clear line" between company time and personal time. Now, with employees using BlackBerries, laptops and e-mail to do work around the clock, "there needs to be a balance, including some personal time at work." Workers used to work together for a lifetime and knew each other well, he added. Today, workers jump around a lot and many employees are temporary. "Companies need to work at bringing people together," he said. "This is a ready-made event to boost morale and camaraderie, so use it to your advantage." Many companies are becoming more flexible and tolerant "because you're not going to attract talent if you manage with an iron fist," said Brandi Britton, senior vice president of OfficeTeam, a Menlo Park staffing company. "And talent is so hard to come by." A survey by the Challenger group of 100 human resource executives found that only 6 percent of companies plan to take steps to prevent workers from accessing March Madness Web sites to follow their favorite teams. The other 94 percent of companies either do not consider productivity loss during the tournament a problem, or they allow the March Madness distraction as a reward for hard work the rest of the year. Challenger said the event stands out for its productivity loss because it's so long. In the first week, many games take place during work hours. A growing number of employers recognize that trying to put the clamps on March Madness fever can be futile and even counterproductive. Richard Carlson, principal at Spectrum Economics in Mountain View, started laughing when asked if March Madness would hurt company productivity. "Employees have got to have a little fun," Carlson said. "They used to close down auto plants on the first day of hunting season in Detroit. This doesn't have any productivity impact at all on Bay Area companies." Wire services contributed to this report.
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#1. To: robin (#0)
Sports...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Who cares?
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