1040 Madness

In full disclosure, there isn’t much about college basketball that interests me.

Perhaps it stems from the fact that my alma mater set NCAA records for mediocrity on the hardwood, finishing at or near .500 the whole four years I went there.

We were an excellent “breather” opponent for then-basketball powerhouses such as UCLA, Iowa and UNLV who were more than happy to fund annual all-expenses-paid trips to their home arenas. By the beginning of the second half, most of the starters at the above-mentioned schools were already showering and getting dressed. 

I regale you with that quadrennial span of underachievement because as most of you know the vernal event of collegiate basketball known as March Madness is rounding third and workplace productivity is, not surprisingly, suffering.

And for CPA firms, the tournament to determine the champion of college basketball probably could not have come at a worse time – between the March 15 and April 15 filing deadlines.

Since CPAs relish interpreting numbers, try these regarding March Madness and its effect on workplace productivity:

• Roughly 58 million people are participating in NCAA office pools this year
• According to a study by an outplacement consultant, employers stand to lose over $1.2 billion for every unproductive work hour during the tournament.
• Some 6.8 million “unique” online visitors spent just under two hours watching streamed games on their computers or smartphones the first week of the tournament.
• Some 34 percent of workplace networks have crashed due to streaming overloads

I’m just guessing here but those statistics within CPA firms probably translate into more than a few delayed 1040s. And the fact that the early rounds are contested in the afternoon as opposed to prime time only exacerbates this massive distraction.

I somehow find it a strange contradiction that CPA firm owners and partners who exude all the hospitality and warmth of Vladimir Putin when contacted about our services during tax season, somehow manage to easily carve out the time to watch teams like Kentucky or Stanford advance to the deeper rounds.

For next year I think I’ll pitch the idea of us being an outsourced NCAA bracket monitor as one of our consulting services.

I’ll bet that will be one sales pitch that won’t go directly to voicemail.