It's fall in Georgia, and sports fans know what that means: College and professional football teams are back on the fields. The World Series is on the horizon, and NASCAR drivers are racing toward the Nextel Cup.

For the rest of the fall season, and beyond — let's not forget March Madness — there will be plenty of desk-chair predictions on Fridays and just as many water-cooler replays on Mondays as enthusiastic sports fans face off with informal bets and office pools.

Sports are a huge part of American culture and can bring fun and camaraderie to the workplace.

"Getting behind a football team can be a rallying point for co-workers," said Brian Cork, cultural architect and founder of brian cork Human Capital, an executive search, recruiting and consulting firm in Roswell. "It's an exciting topic for discussion and can raise morale, but when you start putting money on it, the dynamics change."

Remember Liza Doolittle of "My Fair Lady?" All she wanted to do was learn to speak and dress properly so that she could work in a flower shop. But when someone gave her a betting ticket at the Ascot races, her focus switched quickly to "Come on Dover, move your bloomin' arse!"

Or take the more contemporary examples of workers who pool their money to buy lottery tickets in state lotteries, hoping to increase their chances of winning the big one. All is fun and dreams, until the group wins. Then you see newspaper headlines about lawsuits or disputes with disgruntled employees who were absent the day the winning ticket was bought, but had paid into the pot for months.

"If you've got people betting on the lottery together, then it's easy during football season for someone to say, 'Let's start a pool,' and then you've crossed the legal line," Cork said. "Like they say, gambling is a slippery slope and it can escalate. The best corporate cultures don't promote gambling. It's wrong for a lot of reasons."

Illegal fun

It's illegal in Georgia to place a bet on any sports team, player, game or political race, said John Monroe, Atlanta office managing partner with Ford & Harrison law firm. "You can run an office pool just for fun, with the winner not winning anything, but what fun is that?"

"From a legal standpoint, companies should prohibit and not allow it to occur because it's a misdemeanor," Monroe said. "If the company has a written policy, then it should be enforced, because if it isn't, then an employee could argue that the company is selective on what policies it enforces." That can lead to lawsuits.

He knows that many companies have informal pools, especially around big sports events. When it does happen, Monroe's practical advice is to keep the office pools infrequent, small and the winnings of low monetary value. The chances of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation expending resources on a small office pool probably aren't very great, he said.

"If you've got four people putting in a dollar to bet over who wins the U.S. open, that's one thing. Twenty-five people putting in $100 each consistently on different sports events — that could be a different matter," Monroe said.

"Technically, it's absolutely illegal, and if law enforcement did decide to enforce the law, it could confiscate any office property used in the office pool," said Alisa Cleek, partner with Elarbee, Thompson, Saap and Wilson LLP, and executive vice president of the Society for Human Resource Management Atlanta. The practice is so widespread that SHRM researched the subject.

"The society found that most HR managers knew that office pools were occurring, and that the most frequent events for betting were the Super Bowl, the NCAA Basketball Tournament, and the date of birth of an expecting employee's child."

Lost productivity

Last year, so many employees were tracking the games during the March Madness basketball tournament, that Challenger, Gray and Christmas Inc., a human-resources consulting company based in Chicago, estimated that $3.8 billion was lost in worker productivity. Many other experts disputed the numbers, but not the fact that major sporting events were distracting and took employee attention from the bottom line.

"The number of hours and psychic energy spent on keeping track of who's winning and losing ... I think pools are counterproductive at the office," said Bruce Dreyfus, managing partner of Transition Compass, a recruiting firm. "I'm no prude. I play poker with my neighbors and enjoy the socialization, but mixing business relationships and betting is like bringing romance into the office. No good can come from it. Either it clicks and the couple isn't focused on work and everyone is jealous, or it doesn't and the two people take it out on everyone else."

Dreyfus said he wasn't popular when he stopped office pools as a sales manager [before he started his own company], but he did it because he knew it was quasi-legal at best and felt it set up a negative atmosphere.

"It wasn't what we were there to do, and it created bad feelings. People would get angry or anxious because they really couldn't afford to participate, and that lowered morale. It might just be $50 bucks to one employee, but to another, it was groceries that week."

There are other down sides to office pools, Cork said. "It can cause undue peer pressure, with people participating because it's expected. In an extreme case it could contribute to someone's gambling problem."

He advocates clear public declarations in the corporate setting, such as memos or corporate handbooks, that say gambling is not tolerated. "Managers should not be involved or encourage their reports to participate, because they have an obligation as leaders to lead by example," he said. "A betting pool can blur the lines of management and workers, and lower the moral compass of an organization."

Positive alternatives

People are going to be competitive and follow sports, so in place of pools, he suggests companies organize outings to see the Braves or other local teams. A corporate golf tournament, even if it offers cash prizes to participants, is not illegal, Monroe said, although sideline betting on the winners, is. "Intramural sports are team-building and a healthy outlet for the competitive spirit. Instead of putting your money on the line, you're asked to put your health and fitness on the line," Cork said.

Alan Fields, president and CEO of HR Assistance, a consulting firm in Greensboro, N.C., said he had to squash a few betting pools in his time as an HR manager for Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Jefferson Pilot and other insurance companies.

"On several occasions during basketball playoff season, betting pools would crop up, and inevitably someone would report it to HR and we'd have to explain that it was illegal and that as a company we didn't condone it," Fields said.

He'd explain that employees could have one if there was no monetary reward and the winner got only the satisfaction of winning. In addition, they were not allowed to use company systems or time to keep track of it.

As an HR manager, Fields spent time trying to come up with reasonable alternatives for employees to socialize, legal activities that would build morale. "You can't take away every bit of fun and enjoyment in the workplace. You don't want people to dread coming to work on Monday morning. You need to find ways to celebrate together," he said.

At several companies, Fields created employee event committees. As long as the events didn't violate company policies and were legal, the committees had a lot of leeway in what they planned. Senior management was not involved, except for an adviser. The committees were made up of a cross-section of employees to gather a broad spectrum of ideas and meet varying needs. They planned baseball outings and bus trips to the Asheville Zoo and the Biltmore House. There were ice skating and bowling nights, as well as intramural basketball and softball teams. Sporting events can increase the risk of worker's comp injuries, but getting participants to sign waivers beforehand helps to avoid any lawsuits.

"The committee at Blue Cross/Blue Shield came up with one of the best ideas that they called 'Whatyoudo?' " Fields said. "It was a fair for employees to show off crafts and things that they had made. The first one was small — people seemed shy to bring things in — but the second one tripled in size and had to be held in the auditorium. It was a lot of fun and got a lot of enthusiasm going."

The company gave out ribbons to winners, and several affinity groups started from the events, as employees learned that they shared hobbies and interests.

"Sports pools are a form of communication, a way for employees to connect and socialize, but there are many good alternatives," Fields said.