Watch out: Holiday shopping being done on company time

Does it seem like employees are a little slower than usual in completing tasks? They may be too busy with their credit cards. Almost half (49%) of workers said they expect to spend time in the office shopping online this holiday season, according to a CareerBuilder survey. More than a quarter of workers said they planned to shop from work either on Black Friday or Cyber Monday.

That survey was taken before Black Friday and Cyber Monday, so how do the actual stats measure up? Internet sales on a whole went up 30% on Cyber Monday and 36% on Black Friday. Most of the online shopping activity on Cyber Monday occurred around 11:25 a.m., suggesting workers were spending time in the office crossing off items on their gift lists.

Year in and year out, shopping from the office becomes more and more common in the weeks leading up to Christmas. Thirty percent said they’d be most likely to shop from work after today, December 7.

But  employers tend to be more lenient when employees use downtime for online shopping. Only 7% of hiring managers have fired an employee for holiday shopping at work, the survey shows.

How do you feel about employees shopping at work? Is it something that can be overlooked around the holiday season? Or should employers be more strict about how their employees are spending their time? Let us know in the comments below.