Guest Opinion: Your Employees Are Ready For Football Season. Are You?

Rich Meneghello's guest opinion " Your Employees Are Ready For Football Season.  Are You?" was published in the Portland Business Journal on September 12, 2014.

It's estimated that between 30 and 40 million American workers play fantasy football, with each of them spending about two hours each workweek managing their teams. While workplaces may see varying effects, the national economic impact is said to be about $13.4 billion between now and the end of the season.

How worried should employers be? And what can (or should) be done about it?

The main concern for employers is undoubtedly the loss of productivity. While certain fantasy football actions might be considered illegal under state or federal law, the chances of prosecution are small, and your company and your employees are probably not going to be seeing armed agents storming your office to break up a fantasy league anytime soon. Instead, your main concern should probably be the employees researching this week's starting players instead of this week's accounts receivables.

Some employers may take a hard line "old school" approach to address this issue.  While other more flexible managers recognize that employees will inevitably spend some work time handling personal business or surfing the internet.

Regardless of the approach, companies should decide how they want to handle the new football season so that issues are addressed in a consistent manner and expectations are clearly outlined for all employees.

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