TIMEOUT

Basketball is in employers’ courts when it comes to March Madness

March Madness tips off this week, and the Tulsa City County Library, for one, is embracing the annual event as an opportunity to build camaraderie among workers. The library is sponsoring a second annual Bracket Challenge for employees systemwide, Louan Torres posted on Facebook.

“We decorate our branches and are able to wear jeans and our favorite teams’ shirts throughout the month of March,” Torres said. The message from her leadership: “We hope you’ll consider participating in this friendly competition for the best bragging rights around!”

But while some employers are making the most of March Madness, others are bracing for the inevitable loss in productivity — from employees researching teams and filling out brackets during work hours to streaming and discussing games. A dozen games are being played during work hours Thursday and Friday.

If those employees who care about March Madness fritter away just one hour each, lost productivity will cost employers $2.3 billion nationwide, according to Chicago-based global outplacement and executive coaching firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc.

The firm based its estimate on the number of working Americans who are likely to participate in March Madness and average hourly earnings. Some 56 percent will spend at least one hour on tournament activities, according to a 2012 MSN survey, the latest available. Today, that’s roughly 86.5 million workers.

Meanwhile, current average hourly earnings are $26.74, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. So, 86.5 million times $26.74 equals $2.3 billion.

NCAA tournament disruptions are much more frequent, according to a recent survey of Menlo, Calif.-based Office Team staffing firm. Professionals said they spend an average of 25.5 minutes per workday on sports-related activities during the college basketball playoffs. With the tournament spread across 15 workdays, that’s the equivalent of six hours per employee.

‘Spectator section’

To curb the madness in the workplace, consultants

with Seyfarth Shaw at Work, a Chicago legal compliance and consulting services company, recommend employers set up a dedicated “spectator section” and individual managers play “zone defense” to ensure distractions are kept to a reasonable minimum.

Offering a dedicated watch area can limit workers’ temptation to stream live games from their desks and conserve a company’s computer bandwidth, said Philippe Weiss, managing director.

There were 88 million live streams during

March Madness in 2017 and a recent survey by U.S. Cellular found 9 percent of smartphone owners use their devices to stream sports.

Weiss also recommends adding free food to the watch areas, so employees won’t be tempted to leave work to catch parts of games in local bars and “return to work in sloshed states because their teams won or lost.”

“Don’t force the madness on employees as doing so carries legal risks,” Weiss said.

A manager of one of his clients, he said, deeply offended an employee, who was devoutly religious and opposed to gambling, by putting her in charge of watching his brackets.

Meanwhile, Oklahoma City employment attorney Philip Bruce of McAfee & Taft annually warns employers that March Madness pools are technically illegal in Oklahoma.

In fact, depending on how office pools are conducted, they can violate multiple state and federal laws, said Bruce, who admits the legal risks are low especially for lowwager brackets and to employers without antigambling policies.

Still, Bruce said participants in workplace bracket challenges should understand the rules and keep the betting to a small amount of money. Meanwhile, Warren Buffett

is offering $1 million a year for life to Berkshire Hathaway employees who perfectly predict the Sweet Sixteen.

With astronomical odds against perfection, the reality of his having to pay up is virtually impossible.

Bruce said one alternative to cash wagers is to turn each bet into a charitable donation where the bracket winner gets to decide where to donate the pool of money by selecting from a preapproved list of charities.

Another idea is to not require employees to pay any money to enter and, instead, award the winner with some nonmonetary reward, such as casual Fridays.