March Madness makes bosses mad

Normally, the springtime college basketball event known as March Madness gets high TV ratings. Last year's tournament was watched by 142 million people over the course of the games, outdistancing Super Bowl XL's 90 million viewers.

This year marks the first year that CBS Sports is streaming the event over the Web, at www.ncaasports.com. And that is costing businesses an estimated $3.8 billion dollars, according to employment consulting firm Challenger, Gray, and Christmas.

"You don't have TVs in every office, but you do have computers in every office with high-speed Internet access," said Larry Kramer, president of CBS Digital Media.

However, a medium-sized company's access to the Web can be slowed by 30 percent if just one employee is streaming video. With million of workers having ready Internet access, companies fear that access to important files and other computer-related tasks will be slowed down by even just one employee watching the game--and if that number goes up, watch out!

"If you begin to get 50, 100 people in an organization that has only a moderate access line, you're going to see some problems," says UCLA school of engineering professor Leonard Kleinrock.

Fortunately for workers, CBS has provided a "Boss Button," which enables the employee, with the click of a mouse, to cover the screen with a convincing spreadsheet. Of course, IT will still be able to nail you, and some IT departments are blocking access to sports and betting sites.

According to The Los Angeles Times, Mike Delawder, IT manager for Anaheim air duct maker Omni Duct Systems Inc., blocked access to sites because it "removes temptation. People don't have access to it. If it's not critical to their job function, why put it in their way?"

Workers are often costing companies money by choosing fun over responsibility. When Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith opened in May of 2005, many workers called in sick so they could wait in line to see the film, costing employers $627 million, according to Challenger, Gray, and Christmas. In January, dollars lost to water cooler chatter regarding Super Bowl XL were estimated by the firm to be at $780 million. So stop reading this story and get back to work.