Twenty-three million Americans are about to become slightly less productive at work.

Fantasy football could cost 9-to-5 employers hundreds of millions of dollars in lost productivity, thanks to all the men and women tinkering with their rosters and starting lineups throughout the workweek.

That's supposing that they spend a few minutes each day visiting their fantasy football websites -- most leagues are operated online these days. And that's also supposing that fantasy football is a new and isolated online time-waster, and doesn't simply replace your lunch hour or smoke break.

Which isn't necessarily the case.

"What company out there doesn't have some kind of break in the day for their employees?" said Paul Charchian, president of the Fantasy Sports Trade Association (and before you ask, yes, this is a real group).

"People are always going to find ways to disengage a couple of times a day."

The trade association disputes the numbers supplied by Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc., a job placement consultancy firm based in Chicago. (The same firm also periodically releases estimates of the time wasted and money wasted during March Madness).

In a 2008 report, the firm estimated that fantasy football participants spend an average of nearly 1.19 hours per week researching and managing their teams while at the office, costing employers $45.22 in lost wages per worker each week.

Add it up, and you have $10.5 billion in damages.

Last year, Yahoo estimated that 12 percent or more of its fantasy football rosters were operated by women. ESPN.com says that about one in five fantasy players are women, with the total number of female fantasy players growing in the double-digit percentages each year. The Fantasy Sports Trade Association also puts the share of women playing fantasy football at about 20 percent; women are also far more likely to play fantasy football, which requires your attention once or twice a week, than fantasy baseball, which is a daily commitment.

So, bosses, don't just assume that it's the men who are slacking off. Then again, don't assume that the bosses aren't slacking off, as well. Mr. Charchian, the fantasy association president, said fantasy sports, much like NCAA pools, can bring an office together. "You've got the guy in the mail room playing with the vice president," when otherwise they wouldn't interact, he said.

Even if fantasy football does result in lost productivity for some businesses, for others, the fantasy football season is a boon.

The trade association claims that fantasy sports participation generates up to $1 billion in business revenue each year, some of that spent at bars and restaurants where the draft-day parties are held, and much of it collected by the websites that run the fantasy leagues, by way of ad revenue, cheat sheets, premium Web products and magazines devoted to fantasy leagues and drafts.

To whatever degree the problem exists, it could soon get worse -- the NFL is mulling the expansion of the current 16-game season to 18 games, which would give pro football fantasy leagues three more weeks to operate -- two more games, plus, possibly, an additional bye week, meaning the season would be 20 weeks in all.

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