March Madness fatigue: Why some office workers hate ‘sportsball’

March Madness is well underway, but for a lot of people, it’s just another day at the office. That is, until you walk into the break room or sign into Slack and realize the place is abuzz with bracket chatter and Final Four predictions. 

You sigh, resigned to yet another month of sportsball—a whole lot of chatter about a game that you don’t know about. And don’t really care to.

For many people, March Madness is a nearly month-long ritual that requires a lot of feigning interest or noise-canceling headphones. For every excited person replaying Yaxel Lendeborg’s latest opponent-crushing dunk is a disinterested coworker nearby, confused at best, or at worst, sensing cliques forming in the workplace that they’re not a part of.

Tolerance for in-office forced fun is at an all-time low, and some managers might bemoan the distraction March Madness causes: coaching firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas recently put out data that suggests employers lose $12 billion a year as workers watch games and tend to brackets on the clock. Some workers report feeling left out by sports talk (“why did I choose video games as my hobby?,” wrote one Redditor), or that they have to fake interest to shoot the breeze about last night’s game. Others suggest it could be a “gateway” to more problematic exclusions at work along lines like gender.

While filling out a bracket at work may be an optional, fun, harmless activity, it’s worth noting any potential effects on team culture.

Enthusiasm for sports “naturally shows up at work,” workplace culture expert Ray White tells Fast Company, “but not every employee connects with sports in the same way. The healthiest workplaces make room for those conversations without assuming everyone shares the same level of interest or knowledge.”

What leaders can do

March Madness could be similar to office Oscars pools: some colleagues probably had impassioned opinions or predictions regarding Amy Madigan’s surprise win or One Battle After Another’s sweep; others couldn’t care less about Hollywood types in their fancy suits and gowns.

One thing that’s helpful for an entire organization to keep in mind is that though March Madness is a big deal for some people, it’s not a big deal for everyone, White adds. 

“One principle I often think about is that belonging during a big event is usually built before the event ever arrives,” White says. “If leaders are already curious about what their people care about throughout the year—such as music, theater, gaming, television, family, and cultural traditions—then March Madness simply becomes one more conversation, not the dominant culture of the room.” 

It might sound basic, but paying attention to the interests of the people who make up an organization goes a long way, White added. 

“In my own leadership, I have learned a lot simply by paying attention to what lights people up,” he explains. “Some team members talk about concerts they attend, some are deeply involved in theater, some love technology, and some follow gaming culture closely. Those conversations matter because they communicate that workplace culture is not built only around what the leader personally enjoys.”

Positive effects

There’s also a secondary (and positive) effect to interest-based activities at work: because employees already feel like their interests matter, they’re much more likely to talk about them, and to invite others with less knowledge into those conversations.  

Paul Ingram, the Kravis Professor of Business at Columbia Business School, noted in January 2026 that his own research has proven “new business friendships are formed on purely personal bases—in particular, on shared values and personal identities.” 

In other words, it might be tempting to think work is work, and personal is personal, but for a lot of us, the intersection of the two is where we’re happiest. And while March Madness may cause distractions, it can also boost morale and team camaraderie.

Plus—as an actual basketball reporter and fan who wasn’t raised on the sport and only truly became interested in it later in life myself—the secret about enjoying March Madness is that you don’t actually have to know that much about college basketball to do so. 

Retired NBA player and ESPN analyst Richard Jefferson told Fast Company to do “whatever you want” when it comes to filling out your bracket. “Get your two best friends and say, ‘Hey, we’re going to fill out these tournaments and we’re going to talk trash to each other’.”

The reason people get excited about March Madness is because it can be personal, he explained. “Where you went to university. Who were your rivals?” Jefferson, who graduated from The University of Arizona, says. “I hate Duke, that’s why I have them losing the first round. Go with your favorite colors. Where did your grandmother go to school? Where’d your grandfather go to school? Do you have any relation?”

“It’s supposed to be fun,” he adds.

Focusing on inclusivity

While it’s true that we may have all become more estranged from one another in recent years, a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic, perhaps, or general societal trends toward disconnection, sometimes it can just be flat-out fun to put yourself out there and actually connect. 

Management may have to spark these kinds of connecting conversations and experiences. For starters, not everyone may know what a bracket even is, White says, or how to fill it out. Perhaps the most enthusiastic team member could lead others in putting together their own predictions, and let the fervor cook from there. 

After all, the benefits are potentially extensive, and such conversations could become a model for including non-sports events into the office environment, too. In one 2021 study entitled Work Group Rituals Enhance the Meaning of Work, Harvard Business School Professor Michael Norton found that employees who engage in the rituals of a workplace—from company-wide outings to bonding activities like, say, building March Madness brackets—tend to be more loyal.

This even holds true when employees are resistant to the group activity in question. “Despite the fact that they think the thing is ridiculous, it can over time start to mean something to them, and they then feel differently about their coworkers and their work,” Norton says. 

White also tells Fast Company there is value in variety. 

“From a broad perspective, I do think organizations benefit from finding multiple cultural touchpoints throughout the year, not just sports. Sports are one shared social event, but they should sit alongside other things people care about. The goal is not to remove sports or always discuss sports within the workplace, but to expand the circle so more people can see themselves in the culture.”

As for March Madness, here’s a second secret: it’s 100% okay to pick your favorite teams based on their school colors, mascots, or even because you keep seeing that one player on social media.

Welcome to the game.