Chicago — Nov. 27
More workers are feeling the draw of holiday online sales during working hours, finds CareerBuilder’s annual Cyber Monday study.
More than half (54 percent) of workers expect to spend some time at work shopping online for the holidays, up from 49 percent last year.
The national survey was conducted online by Harris Interactive from Aug. 13 to Sept. 6. It included a sample of 3,484 workers and 2,099 hiring managers and human resource professionals across industries and company sizes.
While many employees save their online shopping for lunch or while on break, some may not be planning it so smart. One-in-five workers will spend between one and three hours browsing Internet deals from the office over the course of the holiday season, and 10 percent will spend three hours or more, the survey showed, while a quarter report just planning to spend an hour or less.
Of workers who expect to spend two hours or more Internet shopping at work this holiday season, 33 percent feel they are less productive during December because of the holidays. Comparatively, 9 percent of those who don’t plan on doing any holiday shopping online from the office feel less productive during December.
With the ever-looming distractions offered by technology, many employers have had to take measures to prevent loss of productivity, including:
• 51 percent of employers say their organization blocks employees from accessing certain websites from work.
• One-in-five employers say they’ve fired someone for using the Internet for a non-work related activity, and 7 percent of all employers pointed directly to online shopping at work.
• 10 percent of employers say they’ve fired someone for sending non-work related emails during work hours.
Source: CareerBuilder
