Worried about getting caught buying Uncle Leo a scarf online while sitting at your office computer? You probably shouldn't be. It's a good bet that your boss is doing the same thing.
CareerBuilder surveyed several thousand managers and workers, quizzing them about their online shopping habits. Overall, the survey respondents said, they'll be doing less online shopping at work for the holidays this year. Last year, 54 percent said they'd be shopping online on the job, but this year, the number fell to 47 percent.
Of those who said they'd be shopping online at work, 58 percent said they'd spent less than an hour doing so. About a third said they planned to be online for at least one hour and perhaps as many as three; 12 percent estimated they'd be shopping on the job at least three hours this year and maybe even more than five.
Recommended For You
As to who is doing the shopping — 53 percent of managers said they would be, compared to 46 percent of non-bosses. And one in 10 of the bosses estimated they'd spend more than three hours this holiday season buying gifts online while at the office.
By profession, here's CareerBuilder's list of who plans to spend the most time online at work shopping for holiday gifts:
- Information technology: 71 percent
- Professional & business services: 66 percent
- Financial services: 60 percent
- Sales: 57 percent
- Health care: 52 percent
- Transportation: 41 percent
- Manufacturing: 40 percent
- Leisure & hospitality: 39 percent
- Retail: 29 percent
CareerBuilder found that there's no clear pattern to the way employers handle this clear violation of office protocol. Among the responses:
- 53 percent of employers say their organization blocks employees from accessing certain websites from work, and 32 percent monitor the sites employees visit. These figures are similar to recent years.
- 50 percent of employers restrict employees from posting on behalf of the company on social media, and 25 percent have adopted stricter policies in this regard over the past year.
- One in four employers (24 percent) say they've fired someone for using the Internet for a non-work related activity, and 8 percent of all employers pointed directly to online shopping at work. These figures are similar to last year.
© 2025 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
Dan Cook
Dan Cook is a journalist and communications consultant based in Portland, OR. During his journalism career he has been a reporter and editor for a variety of media companies, including American Lawyer Media, BusinessWeek, Newhouse Newspapers, Knight-Ridder, Time Inc., and Reuters. He specializes in health care and insurance related coverage for BenefitsPRO.
