March Madness Invades Your Workplace

There’s no time of year like March Madness.

At first glance, that sounds like the most generic marketing line for the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament, which kicks off on March 14. But here’s the thing: There really is no time of year like March Madness. Because it’s the one time of year you can get people interested in something they absolutely couldn’t care less about all winter. That’s all thanks to March Madness pools and the practice that’s become known as “bracketology.”

There’s no time of year like March Madness.

Sure, college basketball still has true-blue fans who tune in all winter — albeit many of them specifically following their alma maters — but with so much entertainment constantly available today, almost all sports leagues have taken viewership hits.

Regardless, the massive popularity of office sports pools makes everyone from “Kevin” (the world’s most hardcore sports fan) to “Keli” (the administrative assistant who spends most of her free time crocheting hats) tune in all through March. (This year’s Final Four and Championship games actually run on April 1 and 3, respectively.)

The huge size of the field — currently 68 teams, with four play-in games determining the ultimate round of 64 — helps drive the excitement.

The Division I College Football Playoff series only includes four exceptional teams, leaving little speculation to work with. But the basketball tournament throws together everyone from elite teams to the teams that just squeak in, giving rise to unexpected match-ups, thrilling upsets and Cinderella stories.

According to a new poll by Randstad U.S. — a human resources and staffing firm — “nearly 9 in 10 workers agree that office pools help build better team camaraderie.”

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However, supervisors should be aware the poll also notes that “76 percent of employees checked scores during work hours and 53 percent watched or followed sporting events on their computers while at work.”

Still — it might be worth it.

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“While many employers fear a loss of productivity due to the distraction of office pools during the college basketball tournament season, our findings suggest the potential short-term distraction in the office may actually be a win for employee morale, engagement, and satisfaction in the long term,” said Jim Link, chief human resource officer at Randstad North America, in the aforementioned study.

Regardless, “madness” really is the right term for the process: If you’ve participated in office bracket pools over the years, you’ve undoubtedly seen some strange stuff.

College basketball is especially interesting because of the way certain teams go up against each other. Depending on a team’s particular system and where its talents lie, a team with a barely winning record can sometimes upset a juggernaut. It happens all the time in the Big Dance. (Yes, this tournament has more than a few nicknames.)

We’re not going to pretend we have any great suggestions for declaring victory in your office pool (or in one of the many online competitions that have sprung up in recent years). If you’re really focused on winning it all this year, you’re undoubtedly already doing in-depth research.

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Instead, we were curious about some of the stranger ways participants fill out their brackets. So LifeZette visited a few sports bars in the downtown Denver area to ask guests about their strategies.

Kera Comer said she tries to make smart picks, but when it’s a coin flip, she goes with the “blue and orange” strategy. That’s because teams who primarily wear blue and orange actually do have the highest win percentages in the tournament, according to NCAA.com. She’s also a University of Florida grad, and the Gators’ colors, as it happens, are orange and blue.

How’s it worked out for her so far? “Not bad,” she said. “I came in third out of, like, 35 people once.”

Floyd Pittman said he plays it straight, paying $20 a pop to fill out five different brackets this year. But he said his sister, Janice, has an annual tradition of letting her cat, named Rocket, make the picks.

Then there’s Alan Hines, who admitted he used the dartboard approach.

He said she puts each team on an index card and puts two cards on the floor for each match-up in each round. The team Rocket sits on gets the call.

Sounds time-consuming, but Pittman said it only takes a couple of seconds: “That cat will sit on anything you put on the floor.” Pittman said Rocket’s prognostication hasn’t led Janice to victory … yet.

Then there’s Alan Hines, who admitted he used the dartboard approach, along with some buddies, one year. They put teams on a dartboard he hung in the living room and took turns making their selections.

Crazy as that sounds, Hines’ bracket was crushing the competition until the Elite 8 — when all his teams bit the dust. And that wasn’t the only problem.

“We put a bunch of holes in the drywall, and one in a painting my wife likes,” Hines admitted. He patched the drywall, but replacing the painting cost him over $200. As for the dartboard? Hines reported: “It’s hanging in the garage now.”