The pingpong table long ago moved from the rec room to the office. The question that followed is this: Is it a recruiting tool, team-building element, fitness equipment or a waste of time and productivity?

It's not hard to see why pingpong tables have found their way into companies — they're cheap. Used tables can be bought for less than $100. Co-workers easily can pitch in to buy a table if the company doesn't provide one. That means an ownership stake by the employees.

Another benefit is that the learning curve for table tennis is relatively small. Hold paddle, hit ball. The rules are basic, but simple variations can be implemented through collaborative efforts. In our office, any ball that hits off the ceiling is in play, although you won't find that in any formal rulebook. Even if rules disputes arise, not many people take pingpong seriously enough to allow a disagreement to escalate.

Compared to other workplace amenities such as yoga rooms or video game systems, table tennis can appeal to a wide audience because it's so simple to learn. The game is inclusive too; wheelchair-bound employees have the same access to the table as their co-workers.

And the game provides health benefits. Ask any doctor or medical professional, and they'll praise the idea of desk-bound workers getting away from their workstations at any point of the day, for any amount of time. While table tennis isn't cardio, it is physical activity, and it serves as motivation to get out from behind the keyboard.

Athletes gain from playing, building hand-eye coordination. The coach of a state semifinalist high school football team in Texas credited locker-room table tennis games for his team's playoff success.

The value isn't limited to athletics, though. A 2013 study concluded that, "These results support the view that playing of table tennis is beneficial to eye-hand reaction time, improve the concentration and alertness." Concentration and alertness are traits you want to see in a workplace.

We're in the midst of a ping pong tournament in our office. It has involved 12 players, with 11 rounds of head-to-head competition followed by a seeded bracket. Sure, it's brought out the competitive side in some of the players, but with only positive results.

It's also brought out camaraderie and has made the pingpong table the center of the department during breaks and lunch hours. It's given supervisors and subordinates common ground. In other words, it's solidified a community, always a good thing in the workplace.

In some places, that's considered office culture, something pingpong fosters, according to Startup Daily. "True culture is about the people within an organization and the way they interact with each other, and that is the reason that pingpong plays such an important role in the offices of some of world's most successful startups," Mat Beeche wrote on that website.

As with everything about the workplace, there's a dissenting opinion. According to Meshworking, pingpong tables are overrated for attracting millennials to a company, outpaced by benefits, professional development and other elements. It's up to supervisors to make sure the game doesn't become a distraction or safety concern in the office — guidelines that apply to numerous other workplace elements.

Of course, pingpong doesn't have to supplant those other employee benefits. And, if nothing else, it provides another table to use for those holiday office potlucks.