Every year, Robert Tuchman dreads the start of the NCAA tournament.
And it’s not because his favorite, St. John’s, failed (yet again) to make the field of 68 teams who will vie for the national championship during the two-week-plus college basketball orgy.
Instead, it’s because it marks the time of year that Tuchman needs to police his underlings like a strict school headmaster.
There’s a pretty good chance that some are committing personal fouls, watching basketball instead of the company’s bottom line.
“Get an update and a score, but don’t just sit there and stream it all day,” says Tuchman, whose Upper West Side company Goviva sells sports and entertainment experiences to corporate clients.
“It totally galls me, and I get pissed. Especially when people think they’re being sneaky. I know every trick. I did it when I was coming up.”
As the college hoops-fest known as the Big Dance grips the nation, underdogs will upset basketball powerhouses and unlikely heroes will emerge.
It’s an intoxicating tournament built on possibility and uncertainty.
It’s also one of the few sporting events that is aired during office hours — ensuring that workers will be keeping their eye on the ball, but not the one their boss would hope for.
Across the country, employees are merrily spending company time filling out their tournament brackets, yapping about matchups, researching teams and live-streaming games on their computers, reports staffing firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc. in its annual survey.
According to the study, 50 million Americans will participate in office pools, and companies stand to lose a collective $1.2 billion for every unproductive work hour during the first week of the tournament.
Human-resources consultant Lynda Zugec says clients always ask her how to handle the money-losing March situation.
“Bosses are frustrated because it begs the question: Do employees value sports over their working relationship?” says Zugec, who recommends executives build in flextime for people to get their fill of hoops while also getting their jobs done.
“Even if you ban it, you might not get the result you want. We recognize that people are still going to watch the games. Instead of people sneaking around with their cellphones, give them a little leeway if your business can handle it.”
With the ability to stream the games anywhere from your phone to your tablet to your work computer, it’s easier than ever to watch on the sly.
According to Turner Sports, its NCAA March Madness Live — an app that allows fans to manage their brackets, watch games, get live stats and chat with other fans — saw its numbers shoot up to 49 million live streams in 2013 (from both online and mobile devices). That was a whopping 168 percent jump from 2012. This year, basketball fans can now buy the app for their Android or Kindle Fire tablets on Amazon. (The same app allows workers to push a “boss button,” which prompts a very bland spreadsheet to pop up when a superior walks by.)
“March Madness is as much about the fandom and hysteria as it is about the student athletes,” says Eric Hirschhorn, an executive with Burger King, which is partnering with Twitter for a “#WatchLikeAKing” campaign that asks fans to tweet the creative ways in which they are catching the tourney to win prizes.
The hoopla is so out of control that urologists say they are seeing more men schedule vasectomies in March so they can rebound with quality hoops time, CNN reported this week.
And technology is intensifying the frenzy by upping the level of interaction fans can have with sports, says Hirschhorn.
“It’s providing access to people to watch the games when they want and where they want.”
Large financial firms, in turn, are trying to defend their bandwidth — but workers tend to find their way around company blocks.
Andy, who works in finance, says the IT at his New York firm sends out an annual memo warning employees not to stream games because doing so slows down Internet connections.
“I don’t think it was really enforced,” says the 25-year-old, who doesn’t want to reveal his last name for work reasons. “I had multiple screens at my desk, and I had a screen protector [over the screen streaming games], which effectively means you can’t see someone’s screen unless you are at the perfect angle staring directly at it,” he says.
And because he works such long hours, he says his bosses aren’t always “cracking the whip.”
Tuchman, however, has his whip handy. This week marks his busiest selling season of the year. Goviva employees are pitching companies to sell them packages to the Final Four and the Masters, which takes place a week later.
“Ironically, we work in this, we do this and we sell this, but it’s almost like we’re not the ones enjoying the party,” says Tuchman, who adds that it’s sometimes difficult to discern if his employees are working or goofing off. “That’s what makes it really hard. If we were selling light bulbs, I would know they were messing around.”
In such cases, Tuchman will pull aside an employee for a one-on-one sit-down. But in the past, he’s had to call out slackers at sales meetings.
“In my old company, it was more rampant. And usually the guys who weren’t big sellers were the most into the tournament.”
Still, some people argue that March Madness helps build employee morale and can lead to unexpected quality bonding time with the boss.
It’s what a then-rookie consultant working in the Big Apple named Brooks Finnegan found out when he told his boss he’d be out working that afternoon.
“I told my direct superior I wasn’t coming back after lunch,” says Finnegan, who is now 35.
“And I went to a local bar. After a couple of brews down, I totally lost track of time. I had my bracket sheet, was calling friends and loving life. Then I looked down the bar, and who was sitting there but my boss.”
At this point, Finnegan put his hat on and tried to sink into his french fries, but to no avail; his boss approached him, made him sweat for a few seconds and then bought him a beer. Then he admitted he did the same and told him to enjoy the afternoon.
“It was almost a secret code. That was morale boosting — better than anything I could have expected at the office,” says Finnegan.
Even Goviva employees can get the occasional free pass.
Tuchman’s one exception to his strict no-goofing-off-at-work policy?
“I let them watch the game,” he says, “if their alma mater is playing.”
Five Ways to Avoid Fouling Out at Work
“No matter the ubiquity of apps, streaming services or neighborhood sports bars, a Draconian boss is still the same obstacle it ever was,” says Walker Loetscher, associate editor of men’s lifestyle blog InsideHook.
So, how to best manage your boss — and your bracket? Loetscher and Robert Tuchman, owner of Goviva, a sports and entertainment experiences company, offer tips for avoiding any office hoopla.
1. DO organize your office pool and be the king of the bracket.
“You want to be the guy who runs the office pool,” says Loetscher. “If you are the guy running the office pool, maybe your boss gives you a little more leeway to follow the scores during the day since he knows you’re responsible for maintaining it.”
2. DO offer to help your boss fill out his bracket.
“If your boss isn’t much of a hoops guy, offer to help him with his bracket,” says Loetscher, who adds that it might soften him on your tournament watching.
3. DO resist the urge to post effusively on Facebook and Twitter, especially if you are playing hooky.
“Obviously, don’t post too much on social media,” says Loetscher.
4. DO be honest with your boss.
“Tell the boss you really want to watch the game and build in flextime,” says Tuchman. “Say you’ll come in an hour early or leave a couple hours later to catch up on work.”
5. DO take a personal day instead of calling in sick.
“Rather than calling in sick, tell them in advance you are going to be out because you have family or friends in town,” says Loetscher.