In 2007, American businesses lost an estimated $1.2 billion in worker productivity during the NCAA tournament, mostly during its first two days.
That's a lot. But you ain't seen nothing yet. This year, CBS is streaming video for every game - Free....!
It starts today. Your employees, with the best of intentions, are strolling along, and BAM!!! They're hit with this offer from CBS/NCAA:
"NCAA March Madness® on Demand allows you to watch LIVE game broadcasts of CBS Sports television coverage of the NCAA Championship on your computer for FREE!
This year, for the first time ever, you'll be able to watch every game* of the NCAA Championship live online for free. All 63 games, from the First Round through the Final Four including the Championship Game, will be available with NCAA March Madness on Demand — so you'll never have to miss a single shot.
- NCAA March Madness on Demand is 100% free
- Live games streaming on your broadband-connected computer
- Enjoy Championship highlights, recaps, and archived video
- 640x360 widescreen video player
- Exclusive halftime show
- Includes The NCAA Basketball Championship Selection Show
Can't watch? Listen to live streaming audio from Westwood One's radio broadcasts of every game."
You'll need two methodone clinics and a multi-port EAP line to get productivity back to where it belongs.
Actually, the hit to productivity is probably overstated. Whatever happended to shared experiences causing higher level of engagment?
PS - I've got Kansas. Or UCLA....
March Madness productivity loss as an urban myth? I came across a post the other day on one of the Workforce blogs that brings up the idea that it may be good for the office. Fun at the office? Blasphemy!
Take a look:
http://www.workforce.com/wpmu/bizmgmt/
Posted by: Chelsea Duran | March 20, 2008 at 11:18 AM
If anyone has actually tried watching the games online today, good luck. On multiple occasions I realized I was watching a loop of the same two minutes. The streaming is glitchy and sometimes the same ads repeat spastically in mid-game - I counted four times in the same 10 minutes for one ad.
Posted by: Stephanie | March 20, 2008 at 09:29 PM
Watching the NCAA Tournament at work is probably fun. But so would alot of other things, like sleeping, playing cards or texting, but we don't do these things (all day) because we are at WORK. There are other ways of having fun at work, which I won't go into detail here. But I came across an article from a year ago about this that really got me ranting. My blog entry about this is at www.drsmoothr.com entitled, "It's all Fun & Games..."
Posted by: Dr. Smoot | March 21, 2008 at 01:25 PM