Fantasy Football: Team-Building or Time Sink?
Fantasy Football: Team-Building or Time Sink?September was the start of something I have taken part in in the past, both during work with colleagues or after work with strangers. It can have a surprising impact on your business, and it’s fantasy related. What am I talking about? Fantasy Football, of course.
Long gone are the days of stats being updated the next day from the newspaper or manually from nfl.com. Today (like everything else), Fantasy Football is a real-time, interactive thing.
A study in 2019 from Ladders shows that if workers in leagues devote 2.5 hours per week to their fantasy teams, it would cost $9B in lost productivity and focus.
I have run leagues in the past and ran them within the business I was working at. There is a benefit to it as well. As pointed out here, an in-office league promotes teamwork, collaboration, and gives your employees a way to bond, leading to a better work environment. In my experience, leagues with people I know are much more fun, and the ones at work were a good way for us to engage in some healthy competition and smack talk.
There is no right answer, but it’s something to think about. No matter what you choose, it is important that the employees do not waste time and productivity during work hours for a game.
So you can decide: do you run the league as a team building tool or ignore it? Or do you reach out to IT and have all access to fantasy and sports-related sites blocked by your firewall or content filter?
I can tell you I am in a small company now, so an in-house league does not make sense. I’ll be handling all my fantasy team manager duties on my own time, on my own equipment. For you, the choice is yours. (One more thing: anyone want to trade a starting RB for a backup QB? If so, you can contact me at…)
(Image source: iCLIPART)