Office Pool's Low Number Of Bracket Printouts A Reminder How Many Employees Were Laid Off Last Year

COLUMBUS, OH—Employees at Take 5 Media said the smaller-than-usual stack of brackets printed out Wednesday for this year's NCAA basketball tournament served as a stark reminder of just how many workers have been laid off from the design firm over the past year.

"I saw that thin pile of brackets at reception and that's when it really hit me how much we've downsized," said project coordinator Daryl Kedzie, who then began listing off names of former colleagues who have lost their jobs since the recession. "Let's see, Steve's gone—he was a huge Kansas fan. Then there was Tim, who always picked Duke, which we constantly gave him the business about. And by we, I mean me and Erin, who was let go last November and didn't really watch college basketball that much but enjoyed being in the pool. And Henry, of course, who went to Ohio State and was laid off just before Christmas. Man, we would have heard from Henry a lot this year. Huge Buckeyes fan."

"Henry was a good guy," Kedzie added. "I wonder how his wife and two kids are doing. Actually, it would be three by now. Tami was pregnant."

Office manager Amy Erickson told reporters she made the decision to print only 35 brackets, a number she called "generous" considering that the company now employs only 20 full-time staffers, some of whom said they "just weren't into doing it this year, anyway." The number of brackets, she said, was 20 fewer than last year, and 70 fewer than in 2008—the year the economy nearly collapsed and the unemployment rate began its steady increase.

http://www.onionsportsnetwork.com/articles/office-pools-low-number-of-bracket-printouts-a-rem,19746/