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March Madness Slams Business
To prevent major server crashes—or major productivity downfalls—Claire Simmers, author of "Personal Web Usage in the Workplace," says employers should not try to enforce a strict no-tournament policy, because employees are likely to waste more time trying to get to blocked Web sites. Besides, employers risk building up a fair amount of resentment. "You have 55-year-olds trying to hide what they're doing at their desk. It's like being a little kid trying to read at night when they're not supposed to have their light on," says Simmers. "It creates a relationship like a parent and a child."
Instead, the best thing employers can do is to allow employees to take a break and stream a game, as long as they can manage their work. She recognizes that workers will likely spend office hours streaming games, but that doesn't necessarily equate to a drop in productivity. "A lot of it is about flexibility," says Simmers, who teaches at St. Joseph's University's business school, in Philadelphia. "If someone wants to watch a game, maybe they can take a two-hour lunch break today and no lunch break tomorrow. If they are willing to spend 85 hours working the week before, and get everything done, so what if they are watching a basketball game?" Any fan with that commitment, she says, has probably earned the right to watch a game—and, if they're lucky, a win.
© 2008
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Member Comments
Posted By: mbrammer @ 03/24/2008 11:06:24 PM
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: 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.