When Fidelity Investments sacked four employees recently for playing fantasy football on company time, the hapless workers weren’t the only ones feeling the heat. For many a cubicle dweller, males in particular, the idea of toiling through an entire day without a quick read of a fantasy message board or a trash-talking IM sent to a league rival is as unthinkable as the Jets losing to the Detroit Lions.

So the message sent by Fidelity — play fantasy football on your own time, or else — hit office fantasy-jocks like a linebacker blitz at Eli Manning.

But one fantasy expert has a message they’ll no doubt welcome — that having workers indulge in fantasy sports actually benefits a company, and should be encouraged.

“It brings employees from all different levels together, from different departments of the company,” says Michael Henby, who’s written what’s likely the only book on the fantasy football/career connection, “Fantasy Kick: Leverage the Networking Opportunities of Fantasy Football To Give Your Career the Kick It Needs.”

“You may have a director in accounting playing in the league with an entry level person from marketing,” says Henby, a market researcher in finance. “It creates dynamics than can only help the company.”

In fact, companies go to a lot of effort and expense to create the kind of camaraderie-building that happens naturally through fantasy sports, he says.

“It does what companies try to do with the company holiday party or the summer picnic,” he says.

For those not in the huddle, fantasy football players join a fantasy “league,” “draft” NFL players and square off against other participants by totaling the weekly statistics of their players. Adherents say it’s a fun way to follow professional football and promote friendships, while detractors contend it’s a geeky way to waste time — particularly at the office.

To the list of detractors, it’s safe to add the managers at the Fidelity branch in Westlake, Texas, who came down on the fantasy-footballers for violating company gambling policy as well as taking part in activities disruptive to company business.

In the wake of the firings, it’s likewise safe to add scores of fantasy-footballers to the list of Fidelity’s detractors.

“Ridiculous and capricious,” was the judgment of nationally syndicated fantasy columnist Ladd Biro, one of many who took to the Web to denounce the sackings. He noted that fantasy players are hardly gambling away their kids’ college funds.

“The guys put up a whopping $20, for crying out loud,” he wrote.

For those employers who want to heed Henby’s advice and encourage fantasy sports, the virtual-gridiron enthusiast advises to keep the scoring rules simple, and keep money out of it.

“Make it accessible for everyone who wants to participate,” he says.

And to encourage team-building, consider creating partnerships where employees have to work together to manage their teams.

While it goes without saying that no New York Post employee is frittering away their clock time indulging in games, @work did get Post Fantasy Tracker columnist Drew Loftis to weigh in on the topic. Fantasy sports are indeed a catalyst for camaraderie, he says, adding “a deeper layer and texture to the routine sports conversation.”

Unlike Henby, Loftis didn’t go so far as to say that an office devoid of fantasy sports would be less productive. But, he said, “It certainly would be less interesting.”

Scoring potential

You can’t talk about the beneficial effects of fantasy football on office camaraderie without veering towards the actual nitty-gritty of fantasy football. So we asked fantasy-football networking expert Michael Henby for his pick for the best “sleeper” player in next year’s fantasy leagues.

“I’m intrigued by Mark Sanchez for the Jets. He struggled throughout the year, but really hit his stride right at the right time,” says Henby. “He’s going to have fresh knees next year and he’s going to have a new stadium.

“I saw on a draft board that he’s ranked right now in the mid-20s for quarterbacks, so you might be able to steal him in the third or fourth round.”