Mid-March: A time for shamrocks and skiing, spring training and spring break, college basketball and articles about college basketball betting pools. The articles, in a somewhat disapproving tone, remind us that we all spend far too much time on NCAA Tournament pools, and that all this time we spend on them costs the U.S. economy 1.3 zillion dollars. Here's a typical example:
Workers will spend countless hours filling out tournament brackets, monitoring scores on the Web and talking trash across cubicles.
Here’s the math: Employers nationwide lose about $101 million in productivity for every 10 minutes their employees spend obsessing about the tournament, according to New York outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
“I’d guess worker productivity is down in March at most places,” said Wright, an accounting manager at a Metro Detroit manufacturing firm. “Technically, (pools) are illegal, but it’s hard to find an office without one.”
Never stated in these articles are just how productive an office would be if workers were on such a tight leash that they couldn't relax and discuss basketball for ten whole minutes. (DISCLAIMER: talking trash is, of course, harassment, and as such should be reported to the proper authorities.)