True Caring Bosses Spy On You

Every year, noted outplacement firm Challenger Gray & Christmas makes up a statistic about how much productivity is “lost” during the NCAA Tournament, and every year the media writes about it over and over and over even though the statistic is pretty much complete BS. (Check out Jack Shafer’s column from last year for a nice recap.)

The best is that, if one bothered to check, you could see the made-up stat every year. In 2005, the firm said $889 million. 2006? A cool $3.6 billion. And this year, the firm is saying $1.2 billion. Yes, apparently last year was the most popular NCAA Tournament of all time, since it cost this fine country slightly less than three billion dollars more than the years surrounding it.

Anyway, KYW 1060 joins the list of lovable media outlets that buy this shit, or at least report on it, about how oh my God the NCAA Tournament is so bad it makes outplacement firm Challenger Gray & Christmas get its name in the news without them having to pay for it! But, hey, at least we’re $2.4 billion better than last year.

The story’s kind of cute, actually, as Ian Bush interviews a pair of workers who have to say they don’t care about the tourney because their boss is with them. But then he talks with Adam Schran, who created a monitoring software for businesses:

“You can block the NCAA site and they can go to some other sports site, like ESPN. You can’t ever be complete when it comes to blocking. Really, I think what demonstrates more trust for the employee is to let them go to the sites they’re going to, and let them know that you can monitor them.”

Yeah! What demonstrates the most trust is spying on your employees! I mean, if you tell them first!

Area Office Workers Say They’re Leaving NCAA Action at Home (Yeah, Right.) [KYW 1060]
Productivity Madness [Slate]