So four employees from Fidelity were fired for playing fantasy football?  Is this a joke?

This is wrong on so many fronts.  Fantasy football brings co-workers together. Its not gambling.

Its a social event.  Yes - leagues leagues typically play for a pot of money- similar to bowling.  But are they firing any employees for being in the company bowling league competing for a pool of money funded by the participants of the league?

The game (and I emphasize the word "game") brings employees together and helps lift morale - similar to events Fidelity probably creates for similar desired effect.

If they are against the social benefits employee-organized activities bring, they might as well get rid of the company's basketball league, softball league, and prohibit wedding and baby showers too.

Fantasy Football is not gambling.  Its a competition where skill, effort and collaboration is involved.  Someone in their HR department is a little confused.

I'm sending a copy of my book, "Fantasy Kick, Leverage the Networking Opportunities of Fantasy Football to Give Your Career the Kick it Needs" to their HR department. Hopefully the company will reconsider its position on fantasy football.

-Michael
www.fantasykick.com

Just in time for the shopping season.  We will hopefully be able to satisfy consumer demand by making "Fantasy Kick" available at Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com on Monday, 10-30.

This is for the printed book, with our new publisher..

I will keep you updated as more stores sell "Fantasy Kick". 

-Michael

Now is the time where teams are identifying their strengths and weaknesses.  The trade talk really begins heating up about now.  Chances are, your league has seen a trade or two.  If not, get ready - some trades will happen soon.

I was approached this past week with three trade opportunities in my three leagues.  Each trade offer came in differently.  For the most part, they were fair trade offers, but what I find most interestingly is how I was approached.

Trade offer 1: Came in through the trade management feature of my league's site.  The other team and I had not had any conversations regarding a trade.  I opened up my e-mail and there was the offer.

Trade offer 2: I got an e-mail from a team in one of my leagues stating that they saw I had a lot of RB's, but weak at QB.  He mentioned he wanted to work out a deal with me, but requested I threw out some ideas.

Trade offer 3: A co-worker in my work league personally approached me about a trade.  He came by my desk a few times this past week to discuss possible opportunities for us to work out a deal.

Trade offer 2 was the only deal right now that worked out this week.  To me, that's not the story though. The real deal here is networking. Trade offer 1 was cold and impersonable. Trade offer 2 was warmer and created an e-mail dialogue, but Trade offer 3 was the best for networking.

The team for Trade offer 3 and I got to negotiate and work through the challenge of trying to both better our teams through a trade.  A trade didn't materialize, but a new level of respect and familiarity with each other was created.  I'm sure I'll be working with the team from Trade offer 3 for work-related projects in the near-future.  Just having that interaction could help our current and future networking efforts.

Stay tuned. I'll keep you posted on my future trades.  I'm going to need them - especially in my work league.  It's a 16 team league and I'm 0-4!!!  (I put too much stock in the Miami Dolphins this season)

-Michael

Dana Knight, a career columnist for the Indianapolis Star, highlights the benefits of Fantasy Kick.  It's a fun read!

Team A: Your team name is that?  Why?

Team B: I thought it was funny.

Team A: It's offensive.  Do me a favor. Don't submit any trade proposals to me at work using that team name..


Is that the sound of networking opportunities drying up???  This was at a draft.  These two teams already have compromised communication issues getting out of the gate.

-Michael

National Public Radio spent some time with myself and members of my fantasy football league, the Frontier League today.  The segment is set to air on Wednesday morning.

The segment will run on the "Morning Edition" show, a national show.

Here's NPR's Morning Edition web page to learn more.

Special thanks to Kevin and Jamey from my league for taking the time to talk to the press (I still hope to beat you this season though - I got a championship to defend!)

-Michael

Fantasy Kick is catching on.  We were just covered by USA Today.  Click here to check out the article.

Are you ready for Thursday night's game?

-Michael

I work for a fairly large company.  It's big enough to yield a fantasy football league with 16 teams!  The league consists of participants from varying departments. I am now a member in this league.  Was in it a couple of years ago, took a few years off to focus on my other fantasy teams, but now I am back in this league.  At the time of writing this, no one in this league knows about my book, Fantasy Kick.

We had our draft the other night.  There were about 20 guys there - who all work for the same company.  A good majority of them played the previous season and somewhat knew each other.  There were some new participants.  I got a sense that the guys who knew each other though, only really knew about their fantasy football history - not their work history.

I got to the draft fairly early.  I went around the room and introduced myself to each of the other participants.  The commish told me that I didn't need to worry about meeting everyone because we would go around the table we were sitting at and announce who we were.  I still introduced myself.  I got everyone's names and area they worked in.

I'm glad I made the effort to introduce myself, because as we got closer to picking players the commish forgot about introductions and started the draft.

I don't know if these guys were tired, if the lighting in the room was too dark or what , but it was frustrating for me to see my fellow fantasy football participants in this league pass up valuable networking opportunities.  Here they are, in a fun social setting with current managers, and future directors and vp's. Instead of striking up a conversation, they were lamenting about the 202nd pick in the draft!

As the draft entered the final round, the teams who made their final pick would get up an leave without a comment. No taunting, no "nice draft"s no one even thanked the commish for all his hard work.  Only a few of us hung out after to help clean up the room.

I'm sure 99% of the leagues out there are just like my work league.  The participants enjoy the social component of fantasy football, but they are missing networking opportunities every step they take.

Wake up people!  Fantasy football at the office is delivering you valuable networking opportunities.  If you still have your draft coming up, don't let it be like my recent draft. Capitalize on the networking opportunities and give your career the kick it needs!

-Michael

Your draft has either happened or is about to happen.  Fantasy football hype is just beginning. 

It's not just Fantasy Kick, the press is now asking more and more if fantasy football can actually be good for the office.  Check out this article crom Santa Rosa's The Press Democrat. 

What's your company's stance on fantasy football?  This is a good article to show the potential benefits of fantasy football at the office...

-Michael