March Madness

By Elan Mualem

With the dust of first two rounds of March Madness beginning to settle, I figure now is a good time to take a look at one of the most exciting times of the year and its impact on the office.    

Like many organizations, we have a March Madness office pool, and like many, we are permeated by the magical air that the tourney brings to the workplace.  However, the productivity debate is on, and the tournament is its unsuspecting target.   

San Diego-based Internet company Websense states that the cost of one $25-an-hour employee surfing the Internet just one hour a week costs a company $4.  According to a poll Information Week took of participants in its bracket pool, 25 percent spent up to one hour—and 33 percent spent two to four hours—watching or following the scores of the games on the first day of play.  If you are a business owner, this should be the cause of some concern for your bottom line.

But, how do we measure this fiscal loss in productivity against the value of team building and boost in company morale?

While the “big dance” may theoretically get in the way of office productivity, all it is really doing is taking the place of other things that employees do to take a break, like getting a cup of coffee or surfing the net.

The good that March Madness does easily outweighs any bad. The best workplaces are those where co-workers get along, work together, and strive for the common good of the company.  If this is something your employers value in an organization, then look no further than March Madness.  On top of promoting teamwork and making the office a fun place to be, having an office pool gives people who might not work together an opportunity to get to know each other and puts everyone on the same playing field (regardless of their seed).

One of the things that I appreciate most about EPR is that the organization values relationships.  It’s about creating the kind of place where people take pride in the quality of their work and where everyone likes to go to every day.  March Madness embodies this standard.