By now there’s a good chance you’ve gotten at least one email from a colleague with an offer to join the office March Madness pool, and while you’d think bosses would frown upon office time being taken up by sports, it turns out there’s a good reason for bosses to encourage it.
A new poll finds that 89% of workers believe office pools build team camaraderie. What’s more, 84% of employees say the pools make their jobs more enjoyable, while 79% say it increases their engagement at work. Overall, 73% of workers look forward to work more when it’s office pool time, with 50% of employees meeting up with co-workers after work to watch the games. All of this is great for the office, with 39% saying they feel closer to their coworkers after taking part in the office pool.
Of course all this preoccupation with March Madness can affect productivity. In fact, 76% of employees say they check scores while they’re working, while 53% actually watched the game on their computers while at work.
Interestingly, while you may think the idea of winning the big pool is the motivating factor to join an office pool, that’s not necessarily the case. The survey finds that 83% of folks do it for the love of the sport, while only 75% do it to win money.
Source: Randstad