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 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) estimates that employers should expect to lose approximately one hour of work per week for each employee who plays fantasy football.
2. The Fantasy Sports Trade Association ­estimates that approximately 57.4 million ­people in the United States and Canada play fantasy football.
3. About two-thirds of those players are employed full time, and BLS data indicates they earn an average of almost $26 an hour.
4. Given all that, the estimated price tag for productivity lost to fantasy football was close to $17 billion in 2016. For comparison, consider that the real-world NFL took in only a little more than $13 billion in revenue that same year.

 

Challenger, Gray & Christmas is the research firm that compiled the data on productivity lost to the distractions of fantasy sports leagues. However, its CEO, John Challenger, says there may be a plus side to all the time spent on the game, namely that—unlike online shopping or reading and writing posts on Facebook—it does get coworkers talking to each other and perhaps even helps them collaborate better at work. Creativity and morale may also get a boost, says Challenger.

 

Consider this: Assume you own a business and know many of your employees play in a fantasy league. Does this information change your attitude about access to and use of social media at work? Why or why not? What would you do in this situation?

 

Questions

This Problem-Solving Application discusses some eye-popping statistics on the productivity loss of employees playing fantasy sports. For example, the price tag for productivity lost to fantasy football was close to $17 billion in 2016. That's $1 billion a week during the football season.

 

Q1:  As a business owner, define the problem/s posed by employees playing fantasy football at work.

Q2:  Identify potential causes of the problem/s.

Q3: As the owner, what would you do to remedy or at least reduce the identified problem/s?

Q4: Does your approach change if you consider the situation from an HR professional's perspective? Explain.

17. The accompanying table shows eleven altitudes (in thousands of feet) and the speeds of sound (in feet per second) at these altitudes. Speed of Altitude, x sound, y 0 1116 5 1095 10 1078 a. Display the data in a scatter plot. 15 1058 Note: You can construct it on the calculator, you do not need to draw it here.) 20 1036 25 1016 30 996.6 35 970.9 40 966.7 45 50 966.7 966.7 b. Calculate the sample correlation coefficient r. (Round to three decimal places, as needed.) c. Describe the type of correlation, if any, (by MyStatLab's criteria) and interpret the correlation in the context of the data.