Tuesday, September 05, 2006

Are You Ready For Some Football?

As the pro football season fastly approaches, many fantasy football leagues are being started. This includes people in business firms.

Employers and now preparing for a potential decrease in productivity of their employees. Creating a fantasy league in the office takes up alot of time that employees should be using to work. Checking team stats, trading players, and chatting takes up time each day. Fantasy leagues may also pose legal risks for employees. Employers can face lawsuits claiming bias if office leagues exclude some workers, such as women.

However, fantasy sports can be a good thing for the office. Employees compete each week and build camaraderie between their co-workers. Some companies can even make connections with other clients.

Michael Henby, author of Fantasy Kick, a book about leveraging fantasy football in the office to provide a career boost, said, "It's like the new version of golf," he says. "Why do people want to play golf with the boss? So they can get good face time. Fantasy football allows you to be with a group of people from different departments."

1 comment:

Jennifer Stehly said...

I disagree with having a fantasy football league in the office during work hours. Although fantasy football allows you to “be with a group of people from different departments” and get to know your co-workers better, the company is not paying you to do that. If you believe it is a way of enjoyment in your workplace and you don’t want to eliminate it completely then the workers should do it during their lunch or ten minute breaks every couple hours. With doing it during their breaks you are not wasting the company’s money, when you are suppose to do the work the company hired you for, and you are getting the enjoyment out of it along with meeting or keeping in touch with the different departments. Like golf outings, it is an activity that helps you bond with your co-workers and like golf outings, it should be off the clock..
~Jennifer Stehly~