Businesses in the United States will lose $2.1 billion in productivity to workers focusing on the NCAA basketball tournament rather than doing their jobs, according to an annual prediction by workforce outplacement firm Challenger, Gray and Christmas.
Workers will spend plenty of time early this week researching teams and filling out brackets for office and other tournament pools. The firm estimates those losses could reach $600 million alone.
The real losses will come Thursday and Friday when early tournament games start in the middle of the workday. With so many tournament games broadcast online and on mobile devices, many workers will turn their attention from work tasks to tiny screens to try to keep up with the action.
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