For employers, the upcoming online NFL fantasy football season could create something of a gridiron quandary. While fantasy football will likely hit worker productivity as employees go online to check on their teams, blocking access could hit morale.

So what's an employer to do?

Just put up with it for most workers and go after anyone who seriously shirks work, said James Pedderson, a spokesman for Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc., a Chicago-based outplacement business. "Every business has to look at it kind of on a case-by-case basis," Pedderson said, and if a particular worker's output drops because of fantasy football activity, then that worker can be dealt with individually.

According to the Challenger study, productivity losses nationwide can range between an estimated US$275 million and $435 million per week. Multiply that by the 17-week NFL season that begins Sept. 6 and productivity losses could be in the billions.

The lost productivity estimates are based on demographic data provided by online market research vendors comScore.com Inc. and Hitwise.com, which showed that the average annual income of the 13.6 million people who play fantasy football is between $60,000 to $100,000.

One sporting goods industry group, the Sporting Goods Marketing Association, recently reported that the average fantasy football participant spends about 45 minutes a day managing his teams, while a survey by West Virginia Wesleyan College found that 60 percent of fantasy sports fans spent more than an hour daily just thinking about their fantasy teams, according to Challenger's study.

"That is almost two hours a day devoted to fantasy football" for each worker, John Challenger, CEO of the outplacement business, said in a statement. "There are some people who probably wait until the workday is over to strategize, make trades and manage their teams, but many are probably doing at least some of their team tasks from the office."

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