The NCAA-tourney effect
March 20th, 2008 by Cali & Jody
We were all set to blow the lid off the bogus claim that March Madness has a negative effect on the economy. But when we woke up this morning we found that the lid was nowhere to be found. Jack Shafer, the media critic at Slate, had already done all the lid-blowing you could possibly want when it comes to this bit of nonsense.
We can’t improve on what Mr. Shafer says about the “junk economics” behind the claim that the NCAA tournament could cost employers $3.8 billion in lost productivity, but we can point out some of the persistent attitudes and beliefs about work that still live on in his piece. Dig this:
In concocting his lost-productivity estimate, Challenger doesn’t acknowledge that “wasted time” is built into every workday. Workers routinely shop during office hours, take extended coffee breaks, talk to friends on the phone, enjoy long lunches, or gossip around the water cooler. It’s likely that NCAA tourney fans merely reallocate to the games the time they ordinarily waste elsewhere. Likewise, many office workers who don’t complete their tasks by the end of the day stay late or take work home. If fans who screw off at work ultimately do their work at home, the alleged “loss” to productivity would be a wash.
We appreciate that Shafer puts “wasted time” in quotes, but he’s still buying into the culture of judgment that surrounds work. If someone is getting their work done—if they are getting results—then there is no such thing as wasted time. You aren’t “screwing off” at work if the work is getting done at home later. The person who checks their bracket all day, but gets their work done at home, is making a choice about their time. As adults, they have every right to make that choice, and as long as the work is getting done, then no one has a right to judge them about how they spend their day.
People either get the job done or they don’t. As long as they meet their deadlines, it doesn’t matter if they accomplished the task at 10:00 am in a cube or at 3:00 am in their basement. Talking about time, and judging people for how they spend it, gets us nothing. So get your ass over to ESPN.com. There’s a game on.
