March 20, 2008
Office madness
When the Golden Eagles take the floor this afternoon, legions of avid Marquette University fans will be following the action - at work. JS Online reports.
"As maddening as March may be for employers vying with office pools and business-hour game times for the NCAA men's basketball tournament, there's the added distraction this year of free live-streaming video of each of the 63 games on the Internet.
NCAA March Madness on Demand even sports a "boss button" so that employees can instantly replace game video on their computer screen with a spreadsheet aimed at fooling any passing manager that they're getting work done.
... The Chicago-based outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. , estimates that employers will lose $1.7 billion in productivity through the championship game April 7. That's based on 27% of the nation's labor force wasting 10 minutes per workday "trash talking at the water cooler or watching live videos of the games."
Related: Making millions when the boss isn't looking
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