NCAA Talk Causes Lost Productivity

By JUSTIN BACHMAN

CHICAGO (AP) — Do you love that annual spring ritual of college basketball, March madness?

You and your ilk may be contributing to $1.4 billion in lost worker productivity, according to a good-humored research exercise by Chicago-based outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc.

The company estimated that if each of the 36.6 million American workers with a college degree spent 10 minutes talking about the teams daily – the tournament lasts 15 days – that would amount to $9.3 million per minute, based on an average national wage of $15.38.

None of which is scientific or particularly useful to anyone, save for a chuckle.

But such lost productivity could yield one benefit: “If filling in brackets for an office pool or simply chatting about one’s favorite team at the watercooler for 10 minutes or more provides some relief from the otherwise depressing state of affairs,” Challenger said, “then it seems worthwhile.”

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