Can't pay attention: Fantasy football season has started

FORT WORTH, TEXAS -- It's time for fantasy football enthusiasts to decide whether they're better off using Tony Romo, Brett Favre or perhaps LaDainian Tomlinson.

And many may be surreptitiously filling out their weekly rosters while sitting in their cubicles at work.

With the flood of fantasy football games on Facebook, Yahoo, ESPN and other sites, the temptation is stronger than ever to keep track of teams at work.

For employers, having employees who play fantasy football at work can make for difficult decisions. Should some Web sites be banned, or should employers look the other way? Will allowing it hurt productivity? Would strict rules hurt morale?

"It truly does depend on the company," said Christina Stovall, human-resources supervisor for Odyssey One Source and president of the Fort Worth Human Resource Management Association.

At her company, Stovall said, employees have Internet access but should not abuse the privilege. "We don't necessarily police it, but we don't want people using their whole day on nonbusiness activities," she said. "That's not a good use of company time."

An annual report by Challenger, Gray & Christmas, a Chicago outplacement firm, said fantasy football could cost companies $10.5 billion over the 17-week NFL season. The estimates were based on Fantasy Sports Trade Association and the Fantasy Sports Association data.

"It's a place where productivity could be siphoned away," CEO John Challenger said. "We live in an environment where there's a huge productivity-sucking device or black hole sitting on everybody's desktop."

But he cautioned employers against cracking down. "Many companies and managers still operate on the basis of time -- you're in the office and you're working, or you're out of the office and it's your personal life. That concept of clocking in and clocking out is outdated."