Would you find an invitation to participate in an NCAA basketball pool offensive?

[gigi]

@Trinopus

People say, “Hey, have you heard the one about the two nuns?”

Now, that’s offensive!

[MandaJo]

I can see being. . .put off. . .by a large buy in pool if you had a pretty stratified workplace. In other words, sending out a call for a hundred dollar bracket to a bunch of people that make ten bucks an hour is tacky. It looks spoiled, like the sender doesn’t realize that’s not chump change to everyone. Its like suggesting happy hour at a place that half the people just can’t afford to go to. Effectively, its loudly publically talking about a party some people aren’t invited to.

[iamthewalrus_3]

@Omar_Little

The issue is that a guy at one of our portfolio companies, sent out an invitation to everyone in their company, about 1,000 people. The buy-in he requested was $100 per bracket, with a single winner. Some people complained that it shouldn’t have been sent to the whole company, but to people that he knows well and works with would have been okay.

I think that has less to do with the activity itself and more to do with establishing a policy for company-wide emails to limit spam.

I would be annoyed if I worked at a company that big and got emails for things I didn’t care about from people I didn’t know. My company is a fraction the size, and we still have many different email lists. I get emails where employees talk about, say, wanting to go catch a movie, but it’s only because I’m signed up to the list for people to talk about movies.

[black_rabbit]

@Omar_Little

The issue is that a guy at one of our portfolio companies, sent out an invitation to everyone in their company, about 1,000 people. The buy-in he requested was $100 per bracket, with a single winner. Some people complained that it shouldn’t have been sent to the whole company, but to people that he knows well and works with would have been okay. There was also concern that the huge buy-in might attract the attention of authorities if it got out.

These two factors are they key. It’s not offensive, just clueless. Sending it out to 1,000 people screams “I’m wasting company time!!!” and the huge buy-in screams “I care a lot more about sports than I do about work!!!”

In my office, the limit is usually five bucks per bet, and the pot is usually less than $150. I won eighty bucks at Super Bowl squares this year, and bought everybody bagels on the Tuesday after the game.

[Eureka]

I’d call receiving an invitation to participate in March Madness brackets annoying rather than offensive.

A $5 buy-in is mildly annoying. A $100 buy-in is more annoying-- because $5 is trivial, and $100 is a big chunk of my weekly check.

And if a big chunk of that 1000 people who got the e-mail participate, someone could get a huge windfall.