Play fantasy football at work? You might want to double check your company’s policy on such an act.
Recently, four workers at Fidelity Investments were fired for playing the addictive, online game.
The Ft. Worth Star-Telegram reported that the mutual fund mammoth claims it laid off the employees (all league commissioners) because “participation in any form of gambling through the use of Fidelity time or equipment or an other company resource is prohibited,” according to one company spokesperson. But Cameron Pettigrew isn’t having it.
“One of my buddies sent me something about how bad Trent Edwards was playing or something like that,” Pettigrew said. “So they called me in and talked to me for about 90 minutes on everything I ever knew about fantasy football.
They interrogated me as though I was some sort of international gambling kingpin. Then they released me for the day, and I was like, ‘OK.’ I never thought they’d fire me for this, but, the next day, I get the call saying I had been terminated.”
To be fair, Fidelity does have a policy specifically against playing fantasy football at the office, but Pettigrew claims the policy was ignored by leadership — as those higher up were in leagues themselves. Pettigrew and pals were fired without warning — a cold act during tough times. Was Fidelity trying to send a tough message to other employees by strictly adhering to its poorly communicated “anti-fantasy football” rule or was the company looking for a reason to cut costs?
Either way, it sheds a bad light on Fidelity and it almost goes without saying that they should prepare themselves for legal action.
So let me ask all of you this — do you play fantasy sports during work hours? Be honest, and anonymous if you wish.
I have to admit I play at work and it is a HUGE time waster but I tend to be very competitive at what ever I do so I put a lot of effort into it. The other issue is that last year I lost to two girls in my leauge and I havent been the same since… PS you should really drop Portis, he won’t be back this year…
I play in a Fantasy Football league WITH my boss and coworkers. It’s almost a camaraderie building activity. Yes, time is spent discussing and managing at work, but it does improve over all morale and healthy competitiveness. It gives that “work hard play hard” mentality. There’s incentive for me to beat my boss. And his boss.
Don’t worry Anonymous — neither Portis nor Emily will be back this year in our fantasy league. She missed the Playoffs. Because she sucks. (If you can’t tell, I am also in a league with my co-workers.)
7-6 season was a success with that mish-mash of players…..Cotchery and Santana Moss? More work time should’ve been spent on that team