‘Juice’ May Replace Office Coffee Break

Leslie Cree was so sick of hearing her office mate blab about O.J. Simpson she designated their common space an “O.J. Free Zone.”

“She was driving me insane,” Cree said of her colleague, Martha Gorman, a seminar coordinator for The Hay Group, a management consulting firm based in Philadelphia.

The first witness hasn’t even been called but the battle lines already are forming in offices across America. Some people feel the prospect of live television coverage of the trial, likely to start in January, could become a surprise workplace disruption.

A personnel consulting firm in Chicago is recommending clients air videotaped segments of the trial during lunch breaks.

Another employment consultant in Chicago said lunches and breaks may grow longer, but “people will rise to the occasion and get their work done.”