File Under No Duh: Study Says SF Workers Slacking This Week Due To Giants Fever

Another news outlet falls for the sports/productivity bullshit press releases of Challenger Gray, a Chicago outfit that's much better at getting its name in the papers (and websites) than it is at intelligent analysis of productivity.

I pantsed them for their annual "NCAA Tournament costs American business [enormous, made-up sum of money] in lost productivity" press release in 2005 here, and updated it for the next few years. One time, they got ahold of some new survey to base their bogus assumptions on, and it resulted in lost productivity increasing from one year to the next by a factor of something like 350! Rigorous analysis!

I pointed out, in that 2005 piece, that time spent on, in that case, NCAA Tournament office pools and the like might actually be a net positive for a business, because it can serve as a team-builder and morale booster. At the time, Challenger Gray never mentioned that in their press releases, but since then they always do, as they did this time: "John Challenger, CEO of Challenger, Gray and Christmas, said, however, that Giants games could be a net plus for Bay Area companies since the loss of productivity is offset by the sense of camaraderie that comes with rooting for the hometown team."

Possibly a coincidence. Or maybe they read my piece, but not the whole thing, or they just took out of it what they liked. That would fit their pattern.