Comments on: Say No to Brackets: Office Pools Leave Workers Depressed http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/discoblog/2008/05/30/say-no-to-brackets-office-pools-leave-workers-depressed/ Sat, 11 May 2013 22:50:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4.2 By: topchef http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/discoblog/2008/05/30/say-no-to-brackets-office-pools-leave-workers-depressed/#comment-2567 topchef Mon, 27 Jul 2009 09:09:34 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/discoblog/2008/05/30/say-no-to-brackets-office-pools-leave-workers-depressed/#comment-2567 Great post - Just subscriped to your RSS feed.. Thanks Great post – Just subscriped to your RSS feed.. Thanks

]]> By: Hillary http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/discoblog/2008/05/30/say-no-to-brackets-office-pools-leave-workers-depressed/#comment-2566 Hillary Mon, 02 Jun 2008 02:05:32 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/discoblog/2008/05/30/say-no-to-brackets-office-pools-leave-workers-depressed/#comment-2566 This is just ridiculous and couldn't be more wrong. How about the thrill of playing and the fun chatter and discussion that comes from these games?!?!? Here's a whole web site of people proving this wrong. http://www.last2left.com This is just ridiculous and couldn’t be more wrong. How about the thrill of playing and the fun chatter and discussion that comes from these games?!?!? Here’s a whole web site of people proving this wrong.

http://www.last2left.com

]]> By: Kevin McHugh http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/discoblog/2008/05/30/say-no-to-brackets-office-pools-leave-workers-depressed/#comment-2565 Kevin McHugh Sat, 31 May 2008 12:58:15 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/discoblog/2008/05/30/say-no-to-brackets-office-pools-leave-workers-depressed/#comment-2565 I run an office pool website (www.funofficepools.com) and must say I disagree with some of these conclusions. We had several thousand participants in various private pools for the most recent American Idol show. Over the course of the season, a percentage of participants did drop out (failed to return to place weekly picks), but well over 3/5ths continued to return week after week. While, we cannot say whether the enjoyment factor of watching the show diminished for these people, we can say with certainty many offices enjoyed the game and the competition. Several private offices held finale parties where all pool participants were invited to watch the final show and award the winner of their pool. The premise of this study is that people who would watch a show enjoy it more if they do not predict the outcome. I believe the reality is that they make those predictions privately, they just may not join together to put $5 on the outcome. However, I would also suggest that many more people participate and watch a show that they might otherwise not watch if they are participating in an office pool. Also, whether your office workers enjoy a show or not is irrelevant to whether they are productive at work (as this article seems to suggest). Watch the people communicate, go out to lunch, compare picks and results during March Madness pools--your workers are engaged and communicating with one another. How can this be bad--and do you really care if they enjoy the show less? I run an office pool website (www.funofficepools.com) and must say I disagree with some of these conclusions. We had several thousand participants in various private pools for the most recent American Idol show. Over the course of the season, a percentage of participants did drop out (failed to return to place weekly picks), but well over 3/5ths continued to return week after week. While, we cannot say whether the enjoyment factor of watching the show diminished for these people, we can say with certainty many offices enjoyed the game and the competition. Several private offices held finale parties where all pool participants were invited to watch the final show and award the winner of their pool. The premise of this study is that people who would watch a show enjoy it more if they do not predict the outcome. I believe the reality is that they make those predictions privately, they just may not join together to put $5 on the outcome. However, I would also suggest that many more people participate and watch a show that they might otherwise not watch if they are participating in an office pool. Also, whether your office workers enjoy a show or not is irrelevant to whether they are productive at work (as this article seems to suggest). Watch the people communicate, go out to lunch, compare picks and results during March Madness pools–your workers are engaged and communicating with one another. How can this be bad–and do you really care if they enjoy the show less?

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