We were discussing this briefly today in class. During March Madness, office productivity is debated at great extent to decrease significantly. Arguably it is the most exciting or large scale sports event in the states. Furthermore, I think it is a step more emotional than regular association league sports because for many supporters are rooting for their own college. I found an article that says “while some experts say the office pools and chatter around the NCAA’s basketball tournament is a morale booster, just as many insist that it’s a productivity drain.” Warning: there’s a statistic ahead…(I attempted to use caution when I analyzed the validity or ‘realness’ of this study) “Challenger, Gray & Christmas, employees spend an average of three hours a day watching the basketball tournament during March Madness. CEO John Challenger estimates the goofing off costs employers $134 million in “lost” work.”

Moreover, IT workers in companies are the most effected during March Madness, espeically this year for ABC is live streaming all devices, pluse constant social feeds, and replays more so than the coverage in 2012.
“There will be game replays, video highlights and social alerts. The IT workers — [are] not pleased, fearing WiFi and office networks could slow to a crawl.” Slow internet and WIFI can be a real issue for company’s through the ‘madness’

Some IT workers are creating solutions to this problem, allowing exemptions for the CEO’s and senior exec’s of the company’s to watch live streams- 66% of a survey states they would only allow CEO’s to allow live stream- IT could ban the rest of the employees and already half of the IT workers surveyed have blocked work unrelated websites blackout the ‘madness’

http://jobs.aol.com/articles/2013/03/20/march-madness-office-it-hate/