Factoid of the day: March Madness means (less) business
The folks over at Challenger Gray & Christmas have taken a look at what happens in the workplace when people are lured into the force field that is the NCAA basketball tournament.
The results?
They estimate that during the first week of the tournament alone, workers distracted by March Madness (and that includes you, Mr. President) could cost employers as much as $1.8 billion in wages.
Daniel, those estimates don’t take into account human nature. Most people are not 100% work when the bell rings at 8 until it goes off again at 5,6,7 or 8 in the evening. While I agree that some time is lost because of the event, it is not to the “apocalyptic” extreme painted by C,G&C. And, what’s more, I’d argue that the bonds it creates with fellow workers and the morale that is boosted by these office pools negates any loss within the organization.
While I have no idea if their numbers are accurate, I do think it could actually be true.
Having recently gone through Super Bowl Fever here in New Orleans, I can tell you that hardly ANYONE in the city accomplished anything in the two weeks leading up to the game. There was so much excitement about the game – even from people who were not even football fans – that all energy went towards the buzz that could literally be felt by everyone. And while fun, it was distracting. So, while we might have lost some serious productivity during that time, we most certainly won that game.
p.s. I am not a football fan.
I don’t know if the exact numbers are accurate, but recent radio ratings released in Canada show tuning was down in Vancouver during the Olympic games.
Certainly there are countless factors at play in how consumers spend their time, and all of them can impact behavior, whether it is decreased productivity, media usage or spending patterns.
Business who don’t take major social events into consideration are missing opportunity!
CG&C could go further and study how easy it for one person be distracted by bracketology (or anything really–major events in their community’s backyard, award shows, etc.) when a person doesn’t like his/her job to start with.
Or conversely, how much more fun being at work is for that person when he/she has something to be psyched about instead of just ‘another day to get through’? Is workplace stress reduced by these distractions?