Ever since the Kansas University Jayhawks have been a part of the Big 12 Conference, Michael Mockus has made sure to take time off work for March Madness.

Thursday afternoon, Mockus and his girlfriend, Andrea Mason, sat in the Red Lyon Tavern watching the Jayhawks square off against Texas Christian University’s Horned Frogs.

“Actually, March Madness is when we started dating 11 years ago,” Mockus said.

“12 years ago,” Mason corrected him, shaking her head. “At the last Missouri-KU game.”

Ever since, the couple has made sure to mark time off their work calendars for the annual tournament. Of course, thousands of other KU basketball fans across the region follow the games, too, while they’re still technically at the office or otherwise on the clock.

Kristie Rogers, an assistant professor in KU’s school of business and specialist in organizational behavior, said some studies show businesses losing millions of hours of productivity because of March Madness. However, Rogers said, she’s not convinced.

“What I would like to see is some scientific research comparing that (March Madness) to the distractions that happen every day,” she said. “Day to day, the lines and boundaries are so blurred between work and personal activities that they are distracted by Twitter or online banking or anything.”

Rather than focusing on one possible distraction over the other, Rogers said, it’s more important for employers to use March Madness as an opportunity to better define what is and is not an appropriate distraction in the workplace.

For Terry Jacobsen, co-owner of Printing Solutions, 725 North Second St., Jayhawk basketball is a welcome interruption to the workday, and the business turns on all televisions to let employees watch the games.

Last year, Jacobsen said he was out of town but received a picture on his phone of an employee at his desk, feet up and watching basketball.

“We like to run a family atmosphere,” he said. “Our entire group of employees is totally into March Madness. They’re just a group of working-class guys and ladies, and they’re into the local teams.”

Jacobsen said he’s happy to create a sense of camaraderie in his business and isn’t concerned about any time or productivity lost.

“What’s an hour and a half cost you?” he said. “They’ll work even harder because they’re happy afterwards.”

While these tournaments can be used to create a team mentality in the workplace, Rogers said there is also a chance of alienating employees who have no interest in the tournament.

Mason, a registration and account manager, said her business planned an employee lunch outing for Thursday’s game and then let everybody go home early. Regardless of the outing, she said, she still took Thursday and Friday off work and is prepared to do the same for next week if the Jayhawks keep winning.

Mockus, a database manager, said he already has requested Thursday and Friday off work both weeks.

“The next two weeks are the best two weeks in basketball,” Mockus said.

Many employees who have enough autonomy at work to be able to watch a game online or constantly check scores are often salaried, Rogers points out.

“And salaried employees have certain deliverables that don’t go away if they do lose those hours,” she said. “For those people the work isn’t going away.”

Whether the work piles up or not, Mockus and Mason agreed they are unlikely to miss a single moment of March Madness.

“This is my holiday season,” Mockus said. “I schedule my travel and work around the next couple of weeks.”