Football season has begun, and along with it football pools, fantasy football leagues and heated discussions about last night’s game. It can seem like a huge drain on performance and might all that betting be illegal? Maybe you should put a stop to the whole thing right away.
Or maybe not. Now, to be clear, as the boss, you can absolutely ban pools and fantasy leagues while at work (banning discussion is futile). But, people really enjoy these things and doing these kinds of activities can actually help unify your office–if you do it correctly. Here are some tips:
To keep reading, click here: How to Manage the Office Football Pool
Thanks for posting this. My current workplace doesn’t do this kind of thing, fortunately, but I’ve been places where it was a Big. Deal. And I’m one of those people who hates professional sports and doesn’t want to hear about it or deal with it any way, shape, or form.
As far as I’m concerned, it’s bad enough that my commute gets messed up when Local Baseball Team has an afternoon game, because of course all the fans are leaving the ball park right at the beginning of the afternoon rush, so public transit is PACKED.
So pressure to participate in this kind of thing is very, very unwelcome to me. I’m not going to try to stop anyone else from having their fun, all I ask is that they leave me out of it!
Mega-Lotteries need to be added to this as well. I’ve worked at a couple of places where the mega-lottery jackpot has reached a huge number so that someone thinks it would be wise to get everyone to pool their money to buy tickets.
As you say, no problem, as long as people don’t feel forced to chip in.
Unfortunately, the one place the guy organizing it felt that everyone had a “duty” to contribute. “What’s a matter, don’t you want us to win?” he said as if the lack of my 20 bucks is going to cause them to lose.
Further unfortunately, the department manager was a jerk too. The manager felt that I was being a spoilsport by not joining in; He asked how was I going to feel when they won and I was the only one left? Simple, I told him that if they won, everyone would quit; and then, I could run the department the “proper” way since there would be no one left to disagree with me. They never bugged me about chipping in again.
I’m sorry but who even is watching football when the rugby world cup is on? I would have though local leagues or sports would not be covered during a global event… Sorry if I’m out of touch, I know sport is different in America but I just assumed a world cup would still be the main coverage…