Holiday shopping during work hours
Holiday traveling, holiday cooking, holiday parties – oh my! With a merry calendar like yours, when are you supposed to get your holiday shopping done? A new survey suggests that many of you plan to do your holiday shopping on company time.
CareerBuilder’s “Cyber Monday” internet usage study found 49 percent of workers plan to shop online at work this holiday season, a finding comparable to previous years' survey results. Of survey respondents, 16 percent say they’ll be shopping from their desk on Cyber Monday.
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Not surprisingly, the temptation to shop online during work hours increases in the weeks leading up to December 25, with 30 percent of those surveyed admitting that they’re most likely to shop from work after December 7th. The study also revealed that a higher percentage of women (43 percent) have shopped online at work than men (36 percent).
“Employers tend to be more lenient when it comes to workers using breaks or down time to get online and—in some cases—take care of some online shopping,” said Rosemary Haefner, vice president of human resources at CareerBuilder. “However, it is the employee’s responsibility to know and adhere to their company’s policy regarding Internet usage. Be aware of how you spend time on the Web, and don’t let your holiday shopping get in the way of your productivity.”
While most companies have an official internet use policy, employees often go online for non-work related reasons.
- 25 percent of employers have fired someone for using the internet for non-work related activity
- 7 percent of hiring managers have fired an employee for holiday shopping at work
- 53 percent of employers block employees from accessing certain websites
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Haefner reminds workers who use their work computers for social media and personal email to be responsible and police themselves when it comes to appropriate internet usage at work.
- 45 percent of workers are connected with co-workers on social media
- 11 percent of hiring managers have fired an employee for something they posted on social media
- 30 percent of employers monitor their employees’ email use
- 11 percent of hiring managers have fired someone for sending non-work related emails
Survey Methodology
The survey of more than 2,400 employers and more than 3,900 workers nationwide was conducted online by Harris Interactive© from August 13 to September 6, 2012.
More from GalTime.com:
- How Much Will You be Spending on the Holidays?
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- Save the Dates! Your Holiday Savings Calendar
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