Shopping online at work? Don't get caught

It's that time of year to furtively hide your credit card under your desk and buy Christmas presents online as you side-eye passersby in paranoia.

Everybody's doing it. Or to be more accurate, 1 in 2 American workers have committed the workplace sin of online shopping during work hours. Less than half (42 percent) said in a recent CareerBuilder poll that they would spend more than an hour at work during the Christmas shopping season buying items online.

Yet the trend of shopping at the job site is increasing, according to CareerBuilder’s poll of 3,321 U.S. employees, with three additional percentage points of workers admitting to shopping online at work compared to 47 percent last year.

Employers are noticing the trend, and some of them aren't happy it, a new Findlaw survey of 1,000 U.S. employees shows. Companies are responding by disciplining or even firing employees, with 12 percent of managers saying they've fired someone for holiday shopping online while at work, up from 8 percent last year.

The Findlaw survey, which has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points, also shows states that half of workers use company equipment (such as phones and computers) for personal reasons. . The CareerBuilder survey has a margin of error of about 2 percentage points.

How some local firms are responding

Local business and human resource experts say whether an employee is penalized for this type of activity comes down to two things: a company's culture of tolerance for online shopping and whether an employee is spending way too much time shopping.

"The impression that I get, from talking to clients, is that shopping in moderation – a little bit here and there – is overlooked depending on the culture of company," said Cathleen Snyder, director of client relations with Strategic HR in Sycamore Township.

Snyder writes human resource policies for Strategic's clients, which range from small family-owned businesses to large companies.

She said she has written zero-tolerance policies for several area companies, adding that those firms were all in the service field.

"I think it also depends on the size of a company – smaller companies will feel the impact of two or three employees who are spending all day online shopping," she said.

A recent Society of Human Resource Management study shows that more than half of employers (55 percent) are fine with employees shopping online – during lunch and breaks.

About 13 percent found shopping anytime acceptable "as long as the employee is on schedule with his or her work." Roughly 32 percent of employers were absolutely against online shopping at work. The study's margin of error is plus or minus five percentage points.

Some businesses are lax on policy

For Brandon Downing, Tristate regional leader of BelFlex Staffing Network, he says his roughly 40 office employees wouldn't have enough time in their day to shop online.

The job placement agency with locations in Florence, Downtown Cincinnati and Indianapolis primarily places individuals in warehousing and distribution jobs. It’s a field that has grown exponentially since Internet sales have risen every holiday season.

"When you're in the recruiting business you're constantly on the phone with clients and potential workers – especially at this time of year," he said, "We're way too busy for that."

Downing acknowledged he wouldn't mind if his employees spent a few moments to purchase Christmas presents for loved ones during their lunch break, "given that the workers are putting in so much extra effort." He said many workers put in overtime to fulfill their duties during the holiday season.

Roughly one in five workers said they are more productive when they shop online because they don't have to leave the office, according to a study conducted by Menlo Park-based Robert Half Technology, an IT staffing firm.

The study states that about 25 percent of workers surveyed are caught for online shopping, especially where monitoring takes place at a company.

However, of the 15 percent of workers that were reprimanded for Internet shopping in the Robert Half study, about 31 percent of them ended up sharing bargains and deals with their managers.