THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, March 11, 1995 TAG: 9503110253
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LON WAGNER, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 64 lines
Some went out to lunch Friday and the Virginia-Georgia Tech game just happened to be on. Who's fault is that?
Some stayed in the office - crept away to a conference room to ``work on that report.'' Hey, maybe the game was on, but how much harm is there in a little background noise?
Throughout the office district of downtown Norfolk - and likely many other places in ACC territory - basketball fans schemed different ways to catch the opening round of the tournament.
At least on Friday afternoon, work-force productivity in the southeastern United States wasn't hitting on all cylinders.
``Actually, I didn't have to sneak out - my boss is a big fan,'' said Matt, who was watching the game at Stormy's Pub in the downtown Marriott. Nonetheless, he preferred not to give his name or that of the downtown Norfolk bank where he works.
``I'm stretching it a bit far,'' he added. ``It's been an hour. I'm going to hang in until midway through the half, head back, go into this room where there's a TV, put a book on my lap and watch the rest.''
Sly, Matt, but a typical maneuver. A better one was over at Scott and Stringfellow Inc., where five Virginia graduates work. Friday was pizza day, and the order coincidentally arrived a few minutes after the tip-off.
``There's a lunch room in there, but no TV - normally people would be in there,'' said Assistant Branch Manager Jay Demeter, doing his darndest to legitimize the gathering. ``I'm trying to make this sound as good as possible.''
For the record, the 10 or so brokers gathered in Scott and Stringfellow's 24th floor Dominion Tower conference room did discuss investments. Dollar Tree's recent initial public offering came up. So did some sort of incentive program. So did U.Va. center Junior Burrough's dominance during last month's Carolina game.
``The market's up 40 points and we're in here watching TV,'' one broker said.
``The headlines read: Lazy brokers watch game as stocks fall,'' joked another.
Pretty good rationalizing, brokers. Not as good, though, as the double-sell bit Kirk Nicodemus came up with while raising funds at an educational conference at the Marriott. You wouldn't want this guy selling derivatives.
``I've got a hospitality suite upstairs and we're showing a fund-raising video. But on the big TV, to get people up there, we got the ACC tournament on,'' he said. ``Once we get them in, we'll turn the game off and show the 10-minute video.''
Not bad: He pulled the ol' bait-and-switch and got to watch the game to boot. But that wasn't the best excuse.
A certain newspaper reporter pitched to his editor this idea about office productivity being down during the games.
And well, if you're out interviewing people, and the game just so happens to be on. . . . ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by Motoya Nakamura, Staff
Employees of Scott & Stringfellow Inc. enjoy lunch, which
coincidentally arrived a few minuttes after the U.Va. game bagan.
by CNB