If you don’t participate in a fantasy football league, you may be considered a rare breed these days. According to the Fantasy Sports Trade Association (FSTA), there are close to 30 million fantasy players in the United States alone, an increase of 54% from just two years ago.
Sounds great, unless of course your employees are using company time to perfect their fantasy starting lineups. Some companies have blocked access to fantasy sports sites (the most common being those offered by Yahoo, ESPN and the NFL), while other companies have fired employees on the spot for engaging in fantasy football during working hours. You may remember the case of 26-year-old Cameron Pettigrew, who, along with four colleagues, was fired from Fidelity Investments without warning for participating in a fantasy football league with coworkers.
This is a case of extremes, however. According to a survey of HR professionals from around the country by global outplacement consultancy Challenger, Gray & Christmas, nearly half (46%) say they do not care if employees engage in fantasy football at work as long as their work performance does not suffer.
“Other surveys show that people are indeed managing their fantasy teams from work. However, what we are hearing from the human resources community is that this is not at all affecting the level of output workers are expected to deliver,” said John A. Challenger, chief executive officer of Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
But it is interesting to note that the FSTA says fantasy football players spend roughly four hours a week adjusting rosters, researching injury reports and proposing trades to their friends. Of that time, approximately 1.2 hours of fantasy team management occurs at the office. And, according to estimates from Challenger, Gray & Christmas, American companies could be losing as much as $1.5 billion in productivity during an average football season because of fantasy leagues.
Even so, some companies see benefits from employees engaging in fantasy sports together, such as boosted morale and improved workplace relationships.
“Managers should only crack down on those whose work is clearly suffering from the added distraction,” said Challenger. “An across-the-board ban on all fantasy football or sports websites could backfire in the form of reduced morale and loyalty. The result could be far worse than the loss of productivity caused by 10 to 20 minutes of team management each day. Companies that not only allow workers to indulge in fantasy football, but actually encourage it by organizing a company leagues are likely to see significant benefits in morale as well as productivity. In the long run, this may lead to increased employee retention.”
What do you think? Should fantasy sports be banned from the office or encouraged among coworkers?
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We have somehow engaged our workplaces into an extension of our personal lives. When at work, we are very social beings and involve others in our personal affairs; when at home, we complain about work. Workplaces are designed for one thing – professional results. While we cannot completely excuse the personal side from creeping in to the workplace, there are certain activities which should not pull away from our expected performance. Less engagement at work, for whatever reasons, costs not only the business, but consumers as well. Quality suffers. Focus should be on the task at hand – not who gets the handoff next Sunday.
Well put, Karel. Thank you for your input.
As an employer I think that Fantasy Football ranks up there with shopping online or conducting personal business on company time. While I’m sure its a pleasurable endeavor, I can’t help but think that it presents opportunities for poor or substandard work performance.
I think some of you are missing the point. While you are picking up on the possible drawbacks of activities like fantasy football, I ask how is this very different than having a pool table or gaming system at work to encourage team building and stress relief. The top places to work in the country, places like Google, Microsoft, SAS, and Zappos.com enchorage seemingly time wasting activities only to find that they get the top talent, most innovation, dedicated employees who don’t watch the clock waiting for the hand to strike 5 because they are there enjoying work. Yes there has to be a balance, however a little trust can go a long way in the scheme of things. I would argue that unlike online shopping, fantasy football amongst coworkers is very much a team thing where you get your employees having fun together and there is no telling how valuable that is.