Work productivity lost during March Madness

NBC's Dan Scheneman reports

(KYMA, KECY/NBC News) - The road to the Final Four is upon us and teams across the country are competing for college basketball's top prize. Meanwhile, fans are competing too.

The need for people to stay tuned and check their online or office pool brackets is taking up hundreds of hours--something that kills the productivity during the work day.

Andy Challenger of Career Outplacement Firm, projects that 72 million workers are worried about bracket busters. In reality, the brackets are busting budgets--costing employers $2.2 billion per hour.

"It also is potentially the most damaging to productivity, that will ever see because so many people are working from home so many people are desperate for an activity like march madness to take part in," Challenger said.

Adam Borland, a Clinical Psychologist with Cleveland Clinic, suggests companies use the interest in the big dance to their advantage.

"The tournament always creates a sense of community, which I think people really need nowadays," Borland said.

He also said to create a balance--call a timeout and not a foul.

"If watching tournament games, is something that you're passionate about, then great," he said. "However, it is going to obviously require balance so that you're not neglecting your work."