Workers who play fantasy football on the job cost American employers more than $32 billion annually in lost productivity, a human resources specialist says.
Now, employers are playing defense and sacking some of these armchair quarterbacks.
Chicago-based Challenger, Gray & Christmas estimates that employers in 2008 sustained $617 million a week in lost productivity to the popular sports hobby, despite gains in workplace morale and camaraderie.
Challenger’s analysis comes in the wake of Fidelity Investments firing four Texas workers after they were discovered playing in a paid fantasy football league at work.
Fantasy league team owners, many of whom share the same workplace, draft and trade real professional football, baseball and basketball athletes to play on their make-believe squads.
Fantasy owners track their players’ regular season and playoff performance, such as rushing yards, points scored, points allowed, etc., to move their teams up or down in the league standings.
At “season” end, the “winner” usually claims a share of the entry-fee pot and any friendly wagers.
Fidelity cited its anti-gambling policy as cause for the dismissals. Evidence was found not in work emails, but in two instant messages sent during work hours.
