March Madness Counterpoint: Team building

In order to keep the game fair, we must look at the counterpoint to a post from last week regarding how awful the March Madness basketball tournament is for employee productivity. Within reason, March Madness may actually benefit an office.

It’s important that employees work in enjoyable work environments. Office pools, and all the “my team is better” conversations can help build positive work relationships. As long as it doesn’t get too much in the way of work, you may just want to let March Madness run it’s course.

In a Workforce Management post this week, the author claims productivity lost to March Madness is just another urban legend.

“All of this talk about lost productivity because of March Madness is nonsense. I haven’t seen any credible research that supports the premise, and the ‘data’ that is used to make the point is soft and suspect.”

After covering the same topic last year, readers wrote to the author telling him that March Madness boosted employee bonding and office morale.

“There is no more evidence of workplace productivity losses because of March Madness than there is evidence of alligators in the sewers, Elvis living with aliens, or the Loch Ness Monster. I like fairy tales, but March Madness as a workplace problem is ridiculous.”

March Madness Counterpoint: Team building