WORKPLACE DISTRACTIONS
So many of us are talking and texting about basketball’s March Madness some wonder who is minding the store
Forget the conference room. At Draper and Kramer, a mortgage brokerage in Chicago, the prime gathering spot this month is the lobby, where staffers can watch college hoops stars battle for the NCAA championship title on a 65inch flat screen. “You wouldn’t imagine how many people are taking little breaks,” says Matt Hoffman, the firm’s assistant vice president, mortgage banking. “If March Madness wasn’t around right now, there’d be a lot more people doing a lot more work.’’
Across the U. S., workers may be focusing more on sports brackets than spread sheets as Americans bet billions on the popular NCAA tournament known as March Madness.
But that’s just the distraction of the moment. Texting, checking friends’ threads on Facebook and tiptoeing off to take personal calls are among the top time- wasters at work, according to a survey by Seyfarth Shaw at Work, a subsidiary of law firm Seyfarth Shaw.
In the poll of more than 400 managers and human resources specialists, March Madness ranked third among tech- related office distractions, with 30% saying it was a “major” diversion. Texting was No. 1, with 40% saying it was a significant time- waster, while perusing Facebook came in second according to 31% of those surveyed.
“One of the key distractions during the day is that buzz or that jingle ... of the cellphone,” says Ed Yost, human resources business partner, employee and management relations for the SHRM. Even when staffers are doing a work- related task on their computers “it’s way too easy to open up another tab to your Facebook page, or to eBay, or to ESPN.”
But right now, the nation is in the midst of March Madness. And every minute spent rooting for a team, tweaking a bracket, or trash- talking a colleague is costing employers dollars and cents. Outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas predicts employers could collectively lose $ 2.1 billion for each hour of productivity squandered because American workers are transfixed by the basketball contest.
It’s not just die- hard sports fans who are obsessed. “People who’ve never watched a single college basketball game during the season get ecstatic about March Madness because it’s ... such a huge cultural event,‘’ says Andrew Challenger, vice president of Challenger Gray & Christmas.
With the American Gaming Association projecting that sports fans will bet $ 10.4 billion on this year’s tournament. March Madness may even slow the workflow of staffers who couldn’t care less about the competition.
“People are actually streaming those games live from their desktops, laptops and smartphones ... and dragging down Internet productivity for everyone else,” Challenger says.
Hoffman nudges employees away from a betting square and back to work by inviting everyone to gather at the end of the day to catch up on the games.
Philippe Weiss, managing director of Seyfarth Shaw at Work, says his firm offers talking points to clients to help them get employees back on track when they’re spending too much time discussing jump shots and wagers.
One example? “I appreciate your passion for the brackets. Now let’s please apply some of that passion to the quarterly project.”