The annual debate rages as offices dived into the inevitable $5 or $10 March Madness pools Monday: Is the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament an enemy to worker productivity or a great way to boost office morale?

Indicating that the pools are widely accepted as a standard activity in the American workplace, as many as 58 million people will participate in college hoops bracket challenges this year.

Jeff Brown, a staffer at the National Republican Congressional Committee, said, “I think it kind of brings people together. It gets people involved, and it’s nice if you’re new and you don’t know a lot of people. It can be positive if you do it right.”

Also part of the deal is taking time to study a 65-team bracket and then carving out time to watch the 64 games, including 49 this week. Employment outplacement firm Challenger, Grey and Christmas estimates that office pools will create $1.8 billion in lost productivity this year due to the average worker wasting 100 minutes in the first week alone of the tournament, which begins Tuesday.

(article source: Fox News, video source: CNN, photo source: The Globe and Mail)