Fidelity Investments has fired four employees for fantasy football, citing its anti-gambling policy according to a report in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
Taking other people’s money and sticking it in the stock market apparently isn’t considered gambling under the policy.
Maybe Fidelity has a point. Chicago-based outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas estimated that companies suffered $615 million a week in lost productivity time to fantasy football last year.
Still, Fidelity’s action seems a little harsh, considering how little, if any, work time is said to be involved in this case.
Besides, I’d rather have an investment advisor whose fantasy life is about football than, say, the prospects for some mutual fund.
