TECHNOLOGY

March Madness Slams Business

America's B-ball obsession costs $1.7B in lost productivity

By Sarah Kliff | Newsweek Web Exclusive

Mar 20, 2008 | Updated: 4:44 p.m. ET Mar 20, 2008

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Posted By: seramarlowe @ 03/24/2008 1:07:40 PM

Comment: Think of all the things we could be producing when we're wasting all that time sleeping at night, or taking a vacation, or holidays, or even *gasp* lunch! Work, work, work! I personally don't care about basketball, but if people want to watch it while they're at work, that's fine by me. I seriously doubt that all this basketball-watching is taking up the entire work day - and really, how long does it last - a few hours a day for a few weeks? OH NOOOO. Also, "leading the world in productivity" is not something to be proud of - with that comes "leading the world in antidepressant usage" and "leading the world in high blood pressure."
Posted By: chrisr291 @ 03/24/2008 11:36:55 AM

Comment: Why do we have to work as slaves in the United States. By Posting stories like this, boss start to block web sites!!! CBS was blocked at my office job because he was worried about us watching to much Basketball.... oh and so was si.com, foxsports.com.... Of Course... we just used a proxy to get around all his blocks but its dumb.
Posted By: david-fahey @ 03/23/2008 10:16:58 AM

Comment: SO? and your point is? think of it a team building w/o the expensive business motivational guru. chances are the boss has 3 boards in the exec. pool. you should look at how much revenue is generated by the tourny. or how many bosses leave their offices to follow their schools around the country during the NCAA's, which has to ADD to ofice productivity and moral, no?. do you think average workers can afford those airline tiks, courtside seats, foam fingers and jacked up hotel bills? the EMPOROR's CLUB charges alone can be a bear! how much do they (bosses) cost in lost executive productivity? this is article is like the killjoy's who talk about watching your calories at T-giving! i agree with notasdumb.... do C G &C have a pool? i just read the headline, i did not want to waste my time! just enjoy the tourny, everyone!
Posted By: notasdumbasyouthinkiam @ 03/22/2008 2:49:34 PM

Comment: What a load of crap! People find ways to waste time at work every day, no matter what season it is. Fantasy Football, Rotisserie Baseball, Take Your kids to work day, whatever. I just wasted 2 minutes writing this, and it could have been 2 minutes writing a response to anything else on this web site. I think the folks at Challenger, Gray & Christmas should figure out how much of their own time they are wasting with this study.
Posted By: notasdumbasyouthinkiam @ 03/22/2008 2:47:47 PM

Comment: What a load of crap! People find ways to waste time at work every day, no matter what season it is. Fantasy Football, Rotisserie Baseball, Take Your kids to work day, whatever. I just wasted 2 minutes writing this, and it could have been 2 minutes writing a response to anything else on this web site. I think the folks at Challenger, Gray & Christmas should figure out how much of their own time they are wasting with this study.
Posted By: tomasb14 @ 03/21/2008 8:30:12 PM

Comment: stop writing stuff like this, please we worked and if we want to follow scores so be it. like you your self never surfed the web well on the clock. get a life you tool ! stop defending these corporations, as bad as they screw us over, I think they can survive a couple of weeks of some people having fun. we are humans not robots.
Posted By: re4mdprtygal @ 03/21/2008 8:22:42 PM

Comment: The worker bees of the United States take less personal, sick, and vacation days of any other industrialized country in the world. Parents get less maternity leave. And all this author can worry about is productivity loss during March Madness. Give me a break!
Posted By: mbrammer @ 03/21/2008 7:30:01 PM

Comment: There is another aspect of business loss, when everyone stays home to watch the games. Every retail shop and restaurant hurts bad during this stupid ass game. All of you couch potatoes should take your girlfriend or wife to dinner after the game for putting up with this stupity.
- Posted By: Lady's Man @ 03/21/2008 19:57:40
  
  Comment: 1. This is ridiculous - a happy workforce can be more productive, not less. Case in point part-time workers, ofetn women, usually have more hour productivity than full-time workers, becuase thier lives are more fulfilled with other activities (like raising a family). An inference that lost time equates to lost productivity is narrowmided pseudo-science by men-haters.
  
  2. I don't know your gender mbrammer but either way, you are lame for not recognizing that not all sports fans are men, especially for this tournament. By "lame", I mean narrow-minded sexist and a little too holier than thou.
  
  3. Sports bar, TV advertising, and travel industry revenue all go up because of March madness. These are REAL dollars spent, not hypothetical dollars lost.
  - Posted By: mbrammer @ 03/24/2008 23:06:24
    
    Comment: Ladyman oh i mean Lady's Man, give me a break! I am a 42 y.o male happily married and I have nothing against a man or woman liking sports. my whole point was to make people aware that when all these tournaments are on t.v. all day, business' like restaurants (which I happen to own) and retail shops suffer greatly. I was telli ng people after the game, they should take there "better half" to dinner or shopping. people need to quit being so damn selfish. IAfter reading your comments, I truly doubt you are any kind of "ladys man". I would guess you are more of the "clown" type. Get a life jerk!!!!
Posted By: tommyg @ 03/21/2008 6:25:45 PM

Comment: say what- this article rots=
Posted By: tommyg @ 03/21/2008 6:24:47 PM

Comment: article was written by a very frustrated woman who cannot come up with anything of real value so she picks this because Sarah just plain cannot find real news to write about. Guess she is goofing off too much at work that she looks for shortcuts instead of searching for newsbreakers. Shame on you too Newsweek. Get real- This is a non-story.
Posted By: viji @ 03/21/2008 5:41:45 PM

Comment: I'll bet there's way more lost productivity on Christmas Day than all of March Madness. Oops, hot button...my bad.
Posted By: walldogg @ 03/21/2008 5:23:41 PM

Comment: this article was obviously written by a woman that hates sports because the entire content is stupid. She should be writing about how employers rip off employees by underpaying them, making them work 60 hour weeks with overtime pay, and stealing their tips to compensate underpaid managers like Starbucks did. Emplyees are getting the short end of the deal - not employers.
Posted By: Pork Soda @ 03/21/2008 5:23:03 PM

Comment: SwahilliMan you are a douche. I don't think there's much else to say. Have fun watching battlestar galactica there chief!
Posted By: walldogg @ 03/21/2008 5:21:51 PM

Comment: This article was obviouslt written by a woman that hates sports because it's a stupid article. She should be writing about how employers rip off employees every day by underpaying them and making them work 60 hours work weeks with no overtime pay. Or by steeling their tips like Starbucks did. That subject is more important.
Posted By: Swahili Man @ 03/21/2008 4:43:09 PM

Comment: This whole concept and the idea of grown men watching basketball all day long is so f**ken lame and stupid it doesn't deserve a reply!!! ... now 'm going to watch whatever is on the SciFi channel, dumba**es!!!

SwahiliMan
Posted By: Scottiejo @ 03/21/2008 4:42:22 PM

Comment: How much money was wasted doing research for this artcle? Guess we should add that to the figure. Wow!
Posted By: skins4lf @ 03/21/2008 4:37:10 PM

Comment: The only managers that get mad at people watching these games understand nothing about sports or passion about sports. I bet that most of these managers would be "losing productivity " if it had something to do about star trek or star wars, or something like that.