Question

Required information

A Very Expensive Fantasy

Social media in the work place can have its advantages and disadvantages. This activity is important because managers must implement ways to regulate social media use in order to maintain employee productivity.

The goal of this activity is to help you recognize how social media can damage or improve employee productivity.

Read the case about the impact of fantasy football on work productivity. Then, using the 3-step problem-solving approach, answer the questions that follow.

Fantasy sports are a well-entrenched phenomenon. Tens of millions of people play, and many of them do so at work. Here are some statistics:¹

• The price tag for productivity lost to fantasy football was $16 billion in 2015. That’s $1 billion a week during the football season.
• The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that employers should expect to lose approximately one hour of work per week for each employee who plays fantasy football.
• Approximately 37.5 million fantasy football participants work full time.

That’s only one sport. Assume you own a business and know many of your employees play in fantasy leagues. Does this change your attitude about access to and use of social media at work? What would you do?

Apply the 3-Step Problem-Solving Approach

Step 1: Define the problem in this case.

Step 2: Identify the key causes of this problem.

Step 3: Make your recommendations to remedy or at least reduce the problem defined in Step 1.

Footnote

1. Challenger, Gray, & Christmas, Inc., “Fantasy Football to Cost Employers $16B in 2015,” https://www.challengergray.com/press/press-releases/fantasy-football-cost-employers-16b-2015.

What is the main problem in this Mini-case?

Multiple Choice

• Increase in turnover due to loss of interest in work

• Legal liability of employers who try to block access to fantasy football

• Loss of worker productivity due to fantasy football

• The cost of fantasy football for participants

• Social media policies at organizations

Answer 1

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The main problem in this Mini-case is the cost of fantasy football for participants.

From case -

According to the latest data from the Fantasy Sports Trade Association, approximately 56.8 million Americans and Canadians will participate in fantasy sports this year. That is up from about 12.6 million in 2005. The Association reports that 66 percent or about 37.5 million of those participants are employed full-time.

Meanwhile, the latest figures from the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics indicate that Americans on private-sector payrolls earned an average of $24.99 per hour in July. So, each hour of wasted work time among the 37.5 million fantasy sports enthusiasts costs employers $937,125,000 (37,500,000 X $24.99).

Multiply that figure out over the four weeks of the preseason and 13 weeks of the regular season, which is the duration for most standard fantasy leagues (excluding playoffs), and the total loss comes to $15,931,125,000.