by David Chapman
Staff Writer
When the Madness begins, it’s usually the employers that suffer.
Every mid-March, millions of die-hard and even casual college basketball fans spend an amazing amount of time looking into men’s college basketball games. Scoreboard watching — and consequently bracket watching — is prevalent in the board rooms, cubicles and around water coolers in offices across the country. The result: lowered employee productivity that for two days dramatically affects the bottom line, especially since play begins at noon today and Friday.
According to a forecast study by Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc., a global outplacement consultant, the 16 business days of the tournament could cost employers across the country as much as $1.7 billion in wasted work time. This includes the day following the bracket selection (people surely have to consult co-workers about first round upsets and compare final fours) until the end of the tournament, and is based on the number of people expected to participate in office pools, their income level and additional on-the-clock tournament related activities.
“The City of Jacksonville has strict policies on the personal use of the Internet during City time,” said Kevin Holzendorf, Information Technology Director for the City.
Holzendorf estimated his department handles 4,500 computers, all of which have various forms of spam blockers and other programs designed to prevent access to certain sites.
“We don’t block any Web sites unless they have vulgar or profane content, but we do use Websense, like a lot of other companies,” he said.
Websense provides companies with integrated Web messaging and data protection technologies that help organizations block malicious codes and enforce Internet use and security policies.
While technology has helped employers crack down on employees wasting time, it also has made the methods of keeping track of games more advanced, except it affects more than just the hoops viewer.
Bandwidth vampires — employees watching live games through streaming video on workplace computers — can drain a company’s bandwidth. That can result in network crashes and slower load times on company Web sites. This can add to the economic loss and create headaches for most information technology departments.
Last year, according to the same study citing CBSSports.com statistics, almost 1.4 million people viewed the Web site and 2.6 million hours of basketball live video were watched.
To add to the chicanery, the 2007 March Madness On Demand streaming broadcast also featured a “Boss” button – intended to fool bosses and passerbys by popping up a fake spreadsheet.
There is no vaccine for the basketball sickness, but company heads are doing what they can to prevent further employee production loss.
“We have another program that monitors the fluctuation and response time of service,” said Holzendorf. “If the Internet speed was to fluctuate and response time was to go below acceptable levels, it would tell us why and we could make a phone call to the department head to find out why.”
Holzendorf even said that the information technology department could even pull up a computer’s desktop to see what was causing the problem.
Even with attempts by company leaders to block, monitor and prevent employees from watching the games and keeping tabs on scores, the most dedicated of March Madness infatuated employees still find ways to stay up to date.
“Those who insist there will be no impact are kidding themselves,” said Challenger in the release. “It might be a slight drop in output or it could be slow Internet connections... The key for companies is finding a way to maximize the positive aspects of March Madness so that they outweigh the negatives.”