Fantasy Football Costs American Companies A Whopping $6.5 Billion A Season

Ever wonder how much money is lost when employees tinker with their fantasy football lineups at work? According to a report from outplacement firm Challenger, Grey & Christmas, it comes out to $6.5 billion a season.

If you want to stay ahead in fantasy football, you have to be on top of injuries and your league's waiver wire. If you have a job, that likely means you end up doing a lot of your fantasy maneuvering while on the clock. Could that accumulative time actually end up costing American companies around 6.5 billion a year? That's the number Challenger, Grey & Christmas come up with.

Challenger got to that figure by assuming that each of America's 22.3 million employed fantasy football players spends an hour a week on their team at the workplace. Multiplying that by the $19.93 the average American makes an hour and then by the 15 week season (before fantasy playoffs) gives you the $6.5 billion figure.

If any bosses or business owners are reading this right now, please note what Challenger chief executive John Challenger had to say about the number his company unearthed:

Employers will not see any impact on their bottom line and, for the most part, business will proceed as usual. However, even if the economic impact is faint, it is important to acknowledge fantasy football's overall impact as a societal and workplace phenomenon.

I have a hunch women spend more time socializing on Facebook at work than we spend on our fantasy football team. Ladies and gentlemen, I want your opinion. What do you see at the office? What are the biggest time wasters per gender in your workplace?