The Boss Button?

I just finished reading an article by Dan Wetzel called, "America's Tournament: Buttoned down in which he reports that last year, "American businesses lost and estimated $1.2 billion in worker productivity during the NCAA tournament, mostly during the first two days."

He reports that the Internet feed people who are running the Internet broadcast of the games have even developed something they call a boss button that will dump the screen when their boss is in close proximity. Imagine that, an entire company watching the games from individual cubicles. Will the button stop them from cheering on their team?

Savvy employers know that events like this cost them in productivity no matter what they do. I suggest taking full work-life balance advantage of it. If nothing else, employers can drastically reduce the number of times employee stop work to check the score by simply having them sign up for an email blast that will up date them on the scores periodically.

The get the biggest work-life balance bang out of this sort of thing, play it up all the way. Since productivity is going to take a dive anyway, why not turn it into an employee appreciation event. Broadcast important games in the employee lounge. Serve snacks and run a few contests with team products, sweatshirts, key chains, that sort of thing, as prizes.

Now I don't mean shut down the company for the whole time but rather than having employees pressing their boss buttons when he or she is in close proximity, there are real morale and work-life balance points to be had by letting them watch portions of the game while munching on a company lunch.