March Madness? Get back to work

Before you log on to check your March Madness scores, be careful ? your boss might be watching.

A recent national study estimates the loss in productivity from the annual NCAA basketball tournament will cost American businesses $3.8 billion this year, a four-fold increase from 2005. Improvements in online coverage coupled with games broadcast over the Internet are diverting the attention of millions of Americans away from their in-basket toward the free-throw basket.

“We have a couple pools going, but we’re not supposed to talk about the tournament during work hours,” said Newport Beach loan officer Alex Cregs, who picked University of Connecticut to win. “It’s all about achieving that level of acceptable behavior. You kind of feel out your boss to see what’s OK.”

The $3.8 billion figure has been popping up all over the country, although there are some questions about the methodology used to achieve the high dollar amount. Research firm Challenger, Gray and Christmas used a variety of unrelated sources when crunching their numbers, including what many see is a high estimate that 58.6 million Americans follow the tournament and spend at least 13 minutes a day online checking scores.

“That seems kind of high to me,” joked Shannon Galls, who works as an officer manager in the South Coast Metro Area and picked UCLA to win.

Galls said she had helped organize two March Madness tournaments through her office, each with different wager amounts and point rules. She said besides the 15 to 20 minutes office staff had spent filling out the brackets, the tournament really did not eat too much into productivity.

“I compile all the scores and points after the day is over, so really there’s nothing for anyone else to do except brag about their picks,” she said.

Clerk Brian Ramirez, who works with Galls and also picked UCLA to win, agreed.

“I don’t see a lot of people constantly checking scores online, and those who do are sports fans and spend a lot of time on sports websites anyways,” he said.

Besides popular sites like ESPN.com, a host of online bracket organizers have popped up to help set up office pools. Broadcaster CBS also announced plans to televise all the early round games online for free, while sites like Yahoo offer advanced play-by-play applications and up-to-the-minute scores.

“We’re supposed to avoid those applications,” said sales manager Dirk Regis, who sells office supplies for a small firm in Newport Beach and chose University of Connecticut to win. “They’re a big red flag for our IT department.”

But that doesn’t stop other employees from participating in the tournament. Regis said his company’s human resources department helped him organize a tournament stretching to its four other Southern California offices.

“We have at least $500 riding on this thing,” he said.

The tournaments can be good for office morale, said Ed Fawcett of the Costa Mesa Chamber of Commerce, who thought Duke was going to take the tournament.

“I don’t have a problem with it. To me, they provide a needed entertainment value,” he said.

Companies who ban the contest do so at their own peril, he said.

“Are we going to shut down the Christmas holiday shopping season, the Fourth of July and St. Patrick’s Day?” he asked. “Businesses can’t insulate themselves from every distraction from the rest of the world.”