March 2008

Is your office inspired by the NCAA tournament? Many are, and this year it is very easy to access the games with free online streaming from CBS (InformationWeek article,)   Many offices tolerate pools for betting on this annual tournament, but the cost to the bandwidth of the persons following the games and the bandwidth of the office might be seriously comprised. How real is this threat to productivity?

The consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas issues the most often quoted estimate, but this has been questioned on serveral fronts (Slate, Salon). There are few reports of Internet connections grinding to a halt during "March Madness", but betting, basketball, and the Internet are not a cocktail of unique appeal to the computer end-user. The focus on the NCAA tournament each year is a bit narrow, because there are many existing sources that can sap the bandwidth (e.g. iTunes movie downloads). It really is a larger question of usage and enforcement that will be ongoing throughout the year. The IT policy can be enforced through content or explicit blocking schemes, but these have their own issues (added administration, repeated policy decision per website, false positive blocking or other workflow issues). In the end, policing Internet use should be done as any other distraction might be handled: by proper management oversight. Metrics for productivity should account for those wasting time in any activity while at work whether it is the Internet or too much time at the water cooler. Proper IT policies should be backed by judicious use of load balancing, bandwidth segmentation, and network monitoring. In arenas where the web must be freely searched and utilized by the workers to get their jobs done, their production cannot be judged by the IT department. That oversight is incumbent on HR and upper management.