One-in-Five Workers Participate in March Madness Pools at the Office, Finds CareerBuilder Survey

Workers Reveal Most Memorable Office Pools They've Bet On

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Mar 14, 2012, 06:00 ET

CHICAGO, March 14, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Brackets, bets and upsets will soon be the hot topic around company water coolers. One-in-five workers (20 percent) said they have participated in March Madness pools at work. Nearly one-in-ten watch March Madness games at the office and 17 percent spend, on average, more than an hour checking scores while on the clock. This is according to CareerBuilder's annual survey conducted by Harris Interactive© among more than 7,000 workers between November 9 and December 5, 2011.

Men are more likely to participate in March Madness in the office with 27 percent joining in office pools compared to 13 percent of women.

Comparing regions, workers in the Midwest are the most likely to place bets at work – 23 percent of Midwest workers took part in March Madness pools compared to 20 percent of workers in the West, 19 percent in the South and 18 percent in the Northeast. Among larger markets, Washington D.C., Minneapolis and Chicago ranked the highest.

In addition to wagering around March Madness, workers also shared some of the most amusing and memorable office pools they've bet on:

Who would be the first person to drink too much at a company party
When someone would punch out the supervisor
How long the CEO's fourth marriage would last
Who in the office would be the last to get their power back after a big snow storm
How many accidents would occur at the intersection outside of the office building
What fake illness a co-worker would call in sick with
How long it would take someone to quit
When impending litigation would be filed against the company
The amount of news coverage a particular celebrity would receive in a week
Who would grow the best beard in one month's time

Survey Methodology
This survey was conducted online within the U.S. by Harris Interactive© on behalf of CareerBuilder among 7,780 U.S. workers (employed full-time, not self-employed, non-government) between November 9 and December 5, 2011 (percentages for some questions are based on a subset, based on their responses to certain questions). With a pure probability sample of 7,780, one could say with a 95 percent probability that the overall results have a sampling error of +/- 1.11 percentage points. Sampling error for data from sub-samples is higher and varies.

About CareerBuilder®
CareerBuilder is the global leader in human capital solutions, helping companies target and attract their most important asset - their people. Its online career site, CareerBuilder.com®, is the largest in the United States with more than 24 million unique visitors, 1 million jobs and 45 million resumes. CareerBuilder works with the world's top employers, providing resources for everything from employment branding and data analysis to recruitment support. More than 10,000 websites, including 140 newspapers and broadband portals such as MSN and AOL, feature CareerBuilder's proprietary job search technology on their career sites. Owned by Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE: GCI), Tribune Company and The McClatchy Company (NYSE: MNI), CareerBuilder and its subsidiaries operate in the United States, Europe, Canada and Asia. For more information, visit www.careerbuilder.com.

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SOURCE CareerBuilder