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March 18, 2010

B-SIDES: A 48-hour, nationwide spark for workplace morale

Mark Bennett The Tribune-Star The Tribune Star Thu Mar 18, 2010, 10:18 PM EDT

TERRE HAUTE —  

Let’s say you’ve just poured your first cup of office coffee, and checked your phone messages and e-mails.

No problem.

Then, you Google “Sienna College” to find out its student-to-faculty ratio.

One side of your brain tells you, “This is nuts – obsessively nuts.” But your brain’s other side is thinking that small class sizes might mean the Sienna basketball players feel less stressed this week. Thus, the 13th-seeded Saints have a chance to upset fourth-seeded Purdue on Friday afternoon in the NCAA Tournament’s first round.

So you pencil in Sienna to beat the Boilermakers on your office-pool bracket.

At that point, you’re probably taking March Madness too seriously. Because, well, that’s just nuts.

But, if handled in moderation, the first round of the NCAA Tournament – the most enthusiastic 48 hours in America – can put a spark in your place of employment. Sure, printouts of blank brackets might eat up paper and copy-machine toner. Yet – in an era when employers can’t afford pay raises and other traditional perks, and workers feel the stress – a little on-the-job college hoops mania might boost morale.

“The activities related to March Madness just need to be regulated. As an employer, you just have to realize you can energize your office,” said Sonda Sorg, branch manager of the Robert Half International office at Indianapolis.

OfficeTeam, a Robert Half-owned firm that connects administrative professionals with prospective companies, surveyed 1,000 senior managers at U.S. companies with 20 or more employees. Forty-one percent of them said that watching game highlights and “friendly competitions” (bracket pools that don’t involve money) positively affected staff morale. Another 56 percent of the bosses said such NCAA fun had no impact on productivity, while 22 percent thought it enhanced workers’ output.

Of course, there are limits.

“Does it make sense to spend two hours rooting for your favorite team? Probably not,” Sorg said by telephone Tuesday from Indy.

Likewise, a high-stakes bracket pool is a problem (and illegal).

In reality, though, 35 million Americans participate in March Madness office pools, according to an NCAA estimate cited by the Tampa Tribune. And 92 percent of fans watching the first-round games did their viewing on the job, according to a Nielsen Media Research estimate, also in the Tampa Tribune.

The first Thursday and Friday of the three-week tournament feature wall-to-wall, noon-till-midnight games, broadcast on CBS. Everybody wonders which 12-seed will beat a 5-seed. Could one of the directional or hyphenated No. 16 seeds (East Tennessee State, or Arkansas-Pine Bluff) knock off a No. 1? (Forget that one. It’s never happened.) Is Syracuse really losing to Vermont at halftime? (Sorry, wishful thinking on my part. That 1-vs.-16 matchup isn’t until late Friday night.)

The drama offers an adrenaline rush that could be beneficial.



“There are so many non-monetary ways to become involved, with little or no impact on productivity,” Sorg said.

The company could organize a viewing party after hours, she said. Or, “maybe you allow employees to decorate their desk or wear their college attire, like a sweater,” she said.

Also, employees can exhibit some responsibility in the process. The average worker spends 36 minutes of any work day on personal tasks. So, during the Thursday-Friday NCAA games, they should “be aware that those other personal tasks need to be pushed to after-business hours,” Sorg said. Instead of calling in sick (to watch NCAA games on TV), employees should schedule personal days ahead of time, she added.

Ideally, bosses and their staffs should find a manageable way to dabble in the madness without freezing the business. Short glimpses of games on TV and a rundown of scores “can be a fun break. If you’re an employee, focus and stay on task,” Sorg said. “You can take a five-minute break to talk about a game and check the scores, but then get right back on task.”

Workplaces handle the NCAA Tournament fascination differently. At Eli Lilly Corp. in Clinton, “We do not sanction sports pools or that type of thing,” said Dean Cooke, director of human resources, and TVs aren’t tuned to live events “unless there’s something like a national emergency.” At Paris High School in Illinois, Principal Dave Meister said televisions aren’t set up with the intention of watching NCAA basketball. As for staff pools, “They don’t generally let me know about it,” Meister added. “I’m sure there are pools. That’s sort of a tradition.”

At some job sites, such as hospitals, televisions are present in lobbies, patient rooms and break rooms.

“Almost all the TVs in the hospital are always turned on to those games, this time of year,” said Kristi Roshel, public relations manager at Union Hospital. “A lot of staff, when they have their break time and lunch time, choose to watch those games and enjoy that” and participate in “friendly” bracket predictions.

It’s a way for American workers to push back worries about pay cuts, downsizing and furloughs, and to cheer for the underdog or marvel at replays of a buzzer-beater shot.

Sorg, a Butler grad, will be pulling for her fifth-seeded Bulldogs against UTEP this afternoon. “It’ll be fun to watch,” she said.

Fortunately for Sorg and other Butler fans, that game won’t tip off until 5 o’clock – right about quittin’ time.

(By the way, Sienna’s student-to-faculty ratio is 14-1, so look out Boilers.)



Mark Bennett can be reached at (812) 231-4377 or mark.bennett@tribstar.com.

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