Cyber Monday, a term coined by the National Retail Federation for the first Monday after Thanksgiving, is likely to be a busy day for Internet use in the office. Thirty-two percent of workers plan to holiday shop online this season, up from 29 percent last year, according to CareerBuilder's annual survey. While employers tend to be more lenient around the holidays, experts caution workers to be aware of their company's electronic communications policies as employers have reported monitoring Internet and email use and instituting stricter policies in regard to social media. The survey included more than 3,100 employers and 4,700 workers nationwide.

"The Internet provides fast and convenient access to virtually any resources you need, but you want to make sure you're leveraging those resources during personal time that is allotted to you during the workday, such as your lunch hour," said Rosemary Haefner, Vice President of Human Resources at CareerBuilder. "Nearly half of employers reported they monitor Internet and email use of employees. While employers will take into consideration the overall performance of the employee, smaller staffs and higher productivity demands may have them taking more notice of time spent on non-work related activities. This extends to all types of communications and activities."

Social Media Restrictions - What Workers Should Know Before They Post

Social media has become pervasive for personal and business use. Sixty-one percent of full-time workers reported they have a social networking profile. Among them:

  --  Half of workers (51 percent) spend time on their social networking
      page during the workday; 11 percent spend one hour or more.
  --  25 percent include information about their employer in their
      communications on social networking sites such as Facebook and
      MySpace; 15 percent include company information on Twitter; 13 percent
      of workers with personal blogs say they blog about their companies.
  --  13 percent of workers are "friends" with their boss on their social
      networking profile.
  --  22 percent of workers have separate social networking profiles for
      personal and business use.

With social media becoming a key avenue for employers to promote their brands, products and services and job opportunities, companies are taking a closer look at how messages about the company are communicated.

  --  37 percent of employers have a policy on whether workers can
      communicate about the company on social media sites; 17 percent have
      implemented a stricter policy on employees communicating about the
      company on social media sites in the last year.
  --  21 percent prohibit employees from communicating about the company. 
      Thirteen percent have designated certain employees to post on behalf
      of the company.
  --  16 percent monitor social networking profiles of employees and 14
      percent monitor blogs.


  Internet Usage

Nearly three-in-five workers (58 percent) admitted they use the Internet for non-work related activities while at the office. Twenty-one percent will typically spend one hour or more on personal Internet use while at work.

Workers are advised to limit their Internet searches to those related to work or to designate their lunch hour or break time for these activities.

  --  20 percent of employers have fired someone for using the Internet for
      non-work related activities.
  --  5 percent of employers have fired someone for holiday shopping online
      at work.
  --  Half of employers (50 percent) block employees from accessing certain
      Web sites while at work.


  Personal Emails

Workers are also cautioned about email content as two-thirds have reported they typically send non-work related emails each day.

  --  32 percent of employers monitor emails and 16 percent monitor instant
      messaging.
  --  8 percent have fired someone for non-work related emails.


  Survey Methodology

This survey was conducted online within the U.S. by Harris Interactive© on behalf of CareerBuilder.com between August 20 and September 9, 2009 among 3,163 hiring managers and human resource professionals (employed full-time; not self-employed; with at least significant involvement in hiring decisions; government and non-government) and 4,721 U.S. workers (employed full-time; not self-employed; government and non-government) ages 18 and over. With a pure probability sample of 3,163 and 4,721 one could say with a 95 percent probability that the overall results have a sampling error of +/- 1.74 percentage points and +/- 1.43 percentage points, respectively. Sampling error for data from sub-samples is higher and varies.

About CareerBuilder®

CareerBuilder is the global leader in human capital solutions, helping companies target and attract their most important asset - their people. Its online career site, CareerBuilder.com®, is the largest in the United States with more than 23 million unique visitors, 1 million jobs and 32 million resumes. CareerBuilder works with the world's top employers, providing resources for everything from recruitment to employment branding and data analysis. More than 9,000 websites, including 140 newspapers and broadband portals such as MSN and AOL, feature CareerBuilder's proprietary job search technology on their career sites. Owned by Gannett Co., Inc. , Tribune Company, The McClatchy Company and Microsoft Corp. , CareerBuilder and its subsidiaries operate in the United States, Europe, Canada and Asia. For more information, visit www.careerbuilder.com.

Media Contact: CareerBuilder Michael.Erwin@careerbuilder.com 773-527-3637 http://www.twitter.com/CareerBuilderPR

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SOURCE: Career Builder, Inc.