Courtesy of: The Work Buzz

Are you excited for March Madness? More excited than everyone else you know? Want to bet on it? Before you answer that, you should probably check your company’s guidelines first.

Workers across the country are researching stats, crunching numbers and calling their ESPN-addicted cousins in order to fill out their March Madness brackets. Yet, they might be unaware that 23 percent of employers have a written policy regarding gambling, and an additional 10 percent have an unwritten or understood policy, according to a recent survey from the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). This figure might not sound significant, but in 2006 only 14 percent had a written policy and 7 percent had an unwritten policy, suggesting companies are watching workplace betting more than they used to.

Companies who do have policies regarding gambling (and yes, putting money on March Madness counts) say the following:

• 83 percent prohibit any form of gambling on company premises
• 72 percent will take disciplinary action (not including termination) for violating the  policy
• 70 percent prohibit gambling where money is exchanged
• 67 percent have provisions for termination if the gambling policy is violated

Of all the events that workers bet on, Super Bowl ranks as the most popular and the NCAA college basketball tournament comes in second. (If you look at a CareerBuilder survey from last year, you’ll also see that people bet on some strange stuff. How odd? Well, they’ve bet on when a large pile of snow in the parking lot would melt and what co-workers cholesterol numbers would be.)

What’s interesting is that 55 percent of employers consider office pools to have a positive impact on employee morale. Yet, 37 percent believe office pools have a negative impact on productivity. So betting in the office can make you happy but unproductive … take note, everyone.

Judging by the survey results, most employers aren’t anti-gambling. Unless the company has rules against gambling, your office pool is harmless. So go ahead and fill out your bracket if you want, but don’t let it affect your productivity. You don’t want to give your employer a reason to institute a policy against pools if none exists.

Before you let March Madness overtake you, keep the following tips in mind:

• Do your research and strategizing on your own time.
  Don’t waste hours of your company’s time putting player stats in a spreadsheet when you should be doing your job.
• Check the rules
  Even if you’re pretty sure no rules exist about betting, you should double check. Maybe you can bet but you can’t put money on it. Better to be informed than surprised by an angry boss or HR person.
• Remember, it’s all fun
  Don’t get so enthralled by the competition that you end up yelling at a co-worker or throwing your coffee mug against the wall. No one will like you, you could get fired and you’ve probably ruined office pools for everyone else, too.
• Don’t force people to play
  Office pools are fun. At least they should be. When an overzealous organizer is going up to each person and giving them a version of LBJ’s Treatment just to pressure them into participating, the fun is gone. Some people just don’t care about the pool, so let them sit it out.

That said, good luck!

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