March Madness buzz could cost employers $1.7 billion in lost time

BALTIMORE (Map, News) - Robert Wasilewski, like other University of Maryland students and alumni, was disappointed Sunday when his Terrapins were left out of the field of 65 teams in the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament.

But that won’t dampen Wasilewski’s March Madness excitement, as the portfolio manager with Baltimore-Washington Financial Advisors plans to take Thursday off from work to watch hoops and track his bracket picks.

“We’re sad the Terps aren’t playing, but I’ll still be watching,” Wasilewski said.

Basketball fans will inevitably follow the tournament at work, according to Chicago-based consultant firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

Up to 37.3 million workers participate in office pools. Between the hours spent researching teams, filling out brackets and watching games, the firm estimates the time employees spend on March Madness could cost employers $1.7 billion over the 16 business days of the tournament.

The average employee makes $17.50 an hour — $2.92 every 10 minutes, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. So if all 37.3 million workers spend just 10 minutes a day thinking about college basketball instead of working, that’s $108.9 million in wasted time in one day.

“For public companies whose performance is judged on a quarterly basis, a couple of hours of low or lost productivity can make a difference,” John Challenger, CEO of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, said in a statement. “For professional service firms billing clients by the hour, 10 or 15 unproductive minutes out of an hour can be costly.”

With about 16 games played during business hours Thursday and Friday, up to 1.5 million employees are expected to stream audio and video of the action on their work computers, according to the firm.

Kurt Koenig, IT manager for Baltimore-based Catalyst IT Services, said many companies use online content filtering, limiting audio and video streaming.

“If a lot of people are streaming audio and video, your network lines can start dropping off,” Koenig said.

“You’re not just protecting your bandwidth, you’re also protecting your loss of time,” Koenig said. “If people are streaming TV shows, movies or sports, you could be losing a couple hours a day.”

A big part of the draw of March Madness is in-office competition, according to Florida-based staffing firm Spherion Corp., which said 45 percent of workers who participate in an office pool joined to foster office camaraderie.

“Employers could offset productivity losses by using the tournament to boost morale,” Challenger said in a statement.

acannarsa@baltimoreexaminer.com