With March Madness happening currently (embarrassed with how my bracket is performing), it’s only relevant to talk about the economic impact of the flurry of college basketball games throughout the month. The general thought is that the economy would suffer, with firms paying their workers an estimated $1.9 billion in wages while they aren’t working. Workers are constantly checking their phones and computers for scores (some just watching the games), and The New Republic noted that 86% of workers will check the scores throughout the day.
The idea would be to punish the workers, right? That’s not what some businesses have been doing. An MSN article on this subject talked to multiple businesses that all agreed that punishing them is the wrong way to go. The idea is that they simply can’t stop the workers from checking scores and if they were to ban them from doing so. This would also hurt the overall morale of the business and could affect their work even when they were working while focused.
These businesses would have TV’s in the workplace that the workers could check in on or watch full games together. The morale goes up, and everyone’s efficiency is higher after March Madness is over. The lack of work in the month of March can be made up for from the hard work after.
Not all businesses suffer from March Madness, however. Cities that are hosting the games see the hotel revenue go up from fans visiting and restaurants all over the country with TV’s will be popular to watch the games. From the boom of the first week, the restaurants would see huge success because of the constant amount of games so people will be their throughout the day ordering exponential amounts of food and drink.
March Madness might not be for everyone, but it could make businesses a lot more efficient if they don’t try to fight it.