March Madness

In celebrating the March Madness season, The LA Times recently published an article relating basketball to the ever-changing workplace. It has an interesting take on the “tolerant” workforce.

The “tolerant” workforce is a move for employers to allow employees more personal time at work, including Web use, watching T.V. and making phone calls. This has been said to increase productivity and retention, and create positive relationships (most of the time).

The article highlights a mortgage-banking firm that for the second year in a row is allowing the March Madness games to be displayed on the office big-screens during work hours. The firm does this even though it knows sales will plunge during the NCAA basketball tournaments.

Why? "I want to have a good, fun, upbeat atmosphere," said Brooke Pfautz from his office in Hunt Valley, Md. "You spend more of your waking hours at work, so you might as well enjoy it."

There were many ways I could relate the article to life at Eisbrenner. It may not be as extreme as some of the companies within the article, but you are allowed to bring in your dog, play pool and wear jeans on Friday. Friday is actually my personal favorite, because it also happens to be bagel day. Furthermore, random Koosh ball fights tend to break out around the office, which really helps to break up the day!

Does your office incorporate any unique or sometimes random ways of building relationships within the organization?