Study: Employers could lose $9.6 billion worth of productivity during March Madness

PHOENIX (AZFamily) — As teams and fans continue dancing through March Madness, a new study shows this year’s tournament could cost employers a lot of money.

Outplacement services firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas reports employers can lose $9.6 billion due to low productivity during the tournament.

That number is based on the American Gaming Association’s finding that 68 million adults plan to wager during the tournament and the Bureau of Labor’s finding that the current employment-population ratio is 60.1%.

When multiplied together, that results in 40.9 million Americans potentially getting caught up in the madness. The firm then calculated it using a 2019 OfficeTeam survey that found that adults spent half an hour daily on March Madness activities. When calculated with the 16 work days between Selection Sunday and the championship game, workers spent 408 minutes on March Madness activities at work.

However, ASU clinical economist Daniel Marburger said this study is very surface-level.

“It seemed a little excessive to me to say that they spent a half hour a day doing their brackets, and I’m thinking ‘how long does it take to do a bracket.”

Marburger said economists consider many elements when conducting studies, like Challenger, Gray & Christmas’ report. He said time, location, money and popularity influence these results. However, he says studies like this tend to forget the element of reality.

“If you were to survey people anonymously how much time you waste at work, if you’re browsing the internet or texting your friends or aren’t doing things the firm wants you to do, my guess is a half hour a day is pretty normal,” Marburger said. “They tend to assume that this event does not affect how you adjust your hours. If the games on TV and I’d like to watch it, I could record and I’ll watch it later.”

In conclusion, Marburger believes the tournament won’t be as big of a distraction as it’s made out to be. He also says the Final Four in Phoenix shouldn’t interfere with work productivity because the Final Four rounds are on the weekend, and the Championship is Monday night after work hours.

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