March Madness immunity?

With the nation’s best college basketball teams vying for the national title, the numbers on the scoreboard apparently won’t be the only ones working Americans and their employers will be paying attention to over the next two weeks.

The figures charting workplace production could be a lot more important this year, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc., a Chicago-based outplacement firm.

Last year, nearly 39 million workers participated in March Madness office pools or viewed games online from their desks at work, costing employers about $1.7 billion in lost work time over the duration of the basketball tournament, according to the firm.

However, those numbers are expected to decline sharply, said James K. Pedderson, the firm’s director of public relations.

“Our take on the matter is that with the economy in its current state and job security being of great importance to workers, that they are less likely to engage in any activity that would put their employment in any additional risk like filling out their NCAA brackets at work or watching basketball games online,” said Pedderson.

However, Pedderson said some employers may opt to use the interest the NCAA basketball tournaments generate in the workplace as an opportunity to build morale and camaraderie among staff members.

“That could mean simply putting a television broadcasting the games in a break room, putting together a free office pool or allowing employees to wear their favorite team’s apparel on a certain day of the week,” said Pedderson. “Employers most likely have bigger fish to fry than cracking down on an employee who’s checking a game score anyway.”

In today’s “technology-driven economy,” if an employee is spending time filling out an NCAA bracket at work, they’re probably spending a little time working at home, according to Pedderson. “Either way, companies aren’t going to fail because of March Madness and the work is still going to get done.”