It is OK to run a March Madness bracket in the office?

I haven't had a vacation in more than a year, and the one time I try to take off my boss is e-mailing me constantly, making me feel guilty for taking a week to recharge. I don't mind checking in occasionally, but it's supposed to be a vacation. Any advice for how to delicately send him the message?

There's a great scene in the movie "Annie Hall" where Diane Keaton and Woody Allen are seen on a split screen each talking to their therapists. She tells her shrink that they always have sex — like three times a week — and he tells his therapist that they rarely have sex — like three times per week. Get my point? I don't know what "constantly e-mailing" means to you — and whether or not you are projecting your own guilty feelings for taking time off. Work doesn't stop just because someone is on vacation — but that said, most things can wait, too. It's a matter of prioritizing. If it's a pressing matter — and you are that important and it can't wait — hopefully you get paid for having the level of responsibility, importance and occasional intrusions that come with the job. If it isn't pressing, simply respond that you'd like to deal with this when you return from vacation.

We have an office bet on how you'd answer this — is it OK to run a March Madness bracket contest in the office with a cash entry fee and prizes?

You're betting on my response to an office gambling question?! You know there are support groups and Employee Assistance Programs for people with those kind of problems, right? First of all, any bracket that doesn't have Kentucky winning it all is a losing one. (This coming from a graduate of NYU, where the basketball team is the Division III Violets — and my choices are based as much on school colors and names as anything else!) But to settle your office bet: As long as you aren't strong-arming anyone into ponying up — or taking a cut of the action (known in my circles growing up as "the vig") — then let the Madness begin. The bigger problem is the issue of employees streaming the games on their computers and not getting any work done over the next couple of weeks! Go Violets — err, Red Storm?