Millions of employees nationwide are taking time off work, calling in sick, and watching games and filling in brackets instead of, well, working.
Madness has taken hold — even in the normally quiet college library.
"I just got off our reading room desk, so I actually had to work," said Dan Golodner, an archivist at the Walter P. Reuther Library at Wayne State University. "But, I imagine people will stop working soon because the games are starting. I noticed that one of our employees who follows basketball more than I do isn't here today."
So who is still at work? Or perhaps another way of putting it: Still working?
March Madness, the shorthand name for the hoopla surrounding the NCAA college basketball tournament, means millions of employees nationwide are taking time off work, calling in sick, and watching games and filling in brackets instead of, well, working.
It's an especially exciting time for Detroiters with the Little Caesars Arena hosting the first and second rounds of this year's men's tournament. Folks throughout metro Detroit who don't have tickets to the Big Dance are trying to catch glimpses of the game in bars, restaurants and even in the office.
Golodner, 50, of Huntington Woods said he's using his lunch break to watch a game.
"If you walk by the computers, you'll see in a corner of the screen a basketball going," he said. "Headphones are on and people are in their world of enjoying themselves. Occasionally, you'll hear a 'Yessss.' It's usually a nice whisper."
At 12:40 p.m. Friday, Purdue plays Cal State-Fullerton. At 3:10 p.m., it's the Arkansas vs. Butler, and then at 7:10 p.m., the No. 3-seed Spartans play Bucknell.The final game is 9:40 p.m., with Texas Christian University playing Syracuse.
The second round of games is set for Sunday.
Metro Detroit has hosted games before. Downtown Detroit last hosted the NCAA tournament in 2009 and 2008, when the men's Final Four and Midwest Regional, respectively, were played at Ford Field. The Palace of Auburn Hills welcomed early round games in 2013.
In addition to the games, there are brackets that need attention.
“Between streaming games during work hours to filling out brackets to just discussing the games with coworkers, it’s likely employees will spend much more than one hour during the week-long tournament engaged in March Madness-related activities at work," said Andrew Challenger, vice president of global outplacement and executive coaching firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas in Chicago. "Even workers who aren’t deskbound will be distracted by these games. Bump time spent to two hours, and the tournament could cost employers nearly $5 billion in wages paid to distracted, unproductive workers."
According to the American Gaming Association, more than 40 million Americans fill out tournament brackets, and an estimated 23 million of them are workers.
And, of those workers, 86% of them will spend time on bracket updates, an MSN survey in 2012 found.
Warren Buffett even is offering to pay any of his 375,000 Berkshire Hathaway employees $1 million a year for life if they pick the first 32 games correctly.
But before trying to stop all the madness, consider that there's an upside.
“The tournament is a perfect opportunity for colleagues to bond in the workplace," Challenger said. "Any attempt to keep workers from the games would most likely result in real damage to employee morale, loyalty, and engagement that would far outweigh any short-term benefit to productivity."