Many Do Online Holiday Shopping from Work

CareerBuilder’s annual Cyber Monday survey finds more than half (54%) of employees expect to spend some time at work shopping online for the holidays, which is up from 49% in 2012.

Survey results reveal that while some save their online shopping for lunch or while on break, other employees, specifically one in five, will spend between one and three hours browsing Internet deals from the office over the course of the holiday season. In addition, 10% of surveyed employees say they will spend three hours or more doing do, with one-quarter planning to spend an hour or less.

How will this impact workplace productivity? For employees who expect to spend two hours or more Internet shopping at work, one-third (33%) feel they are less productive during December because of the holidays. However, 9% of those who don’t plan on doing any holiday shopping online from the office also feel less productive during December.

“While employers are often more lenient around the holidays when it comes to their employees shopping online, it is up to employees to make sure the quality of their work is not suffering,” says Rosemary Haefner, vice president of human resources at CareerBuilder in Chicago.

Some employers have taken measures to prevent a loss of productivity, including blocking employees from accessing certain websites at work (51%);

One in five employers (22%) say they have fired someone for using the Internet for a nonwork related activity, and 7% of all employers pointed directly to online shopping at work. Ten percent of employers say they have fired someone for sending nonwork related emails during work hours.

The survey was conducted online by Harris Interactive on behalf of CareerBuilder. It was conducted within the United States among 3,484 workers and 2,099 hiring managers and human resource professionals (employed full-time, not self-employed, nongovernment) between August 13 and September 6.