By Charlie Cole
Can you guess which month of the year is the least productive? You may guess December, the month of Christmas, or June where school ends and summer begins. But the answer is actually March, for no other reason than… March Madness.
The basketball craze seems to affect everyone in the workplace, and production plummets because of it. According to WalletHub an estimated 6.3 billion dollars was lost in 2017 due to people being lazy and unproductive. But how did this start and why has this become accepted?
The origin of March Madness dates back to 1939. However, popularity didn’t kick off until 1977 with the rise of the infamous Bracket Bets. The tradition started at a bar in Staten Island where people would gamble $10 per bracket, where the winner takes all. Not even two years later, the ESPN channel was created and began televising the ever so popular tournaments.
With its popularity in mind, it’s clear to see how March Madness affects workplace productivity. Many workers took time off work or they watched from the comfort of their own office.
How have they not gotten fired?
The main reason that everyone watches March Madness is because of the brackets. Where people can bet on which teams will win and progress to the next round. The goal is to get a perfect bracket, meaning you have to guess the outcome of every single game correctly which would be a 1 in 9.2 quintillion chance. In other words, you are about one billion times more likely to be struck by lightning than to get a perfect bracket. And yet people spend years of their lives gambling that one day they could be the lucky one they could get a perfect ballet.
March Madness is a questionable time. It’s a full month of straight Basketball, bets, and brackets and a serious loss in productivity all because people are busy gambling on their brackets. So if you want to test your luck then maybe try to fill out one yourself. Just… don’t let it get in the way of your day to day life. You don’t want to get fired.