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And this
naturally contributes to the expansion of UPS and Federal Express, whose ground
fleets should all be using biodiesel if we were really smart about it. Some of these
working parents will be frantically trying to find one of these pen computers,
aptly named Fly: http://www.flypentop.com/ Online shopping now
an on the job activity The online retail
industry has taken to calling this Cyber Monday. In a recent survey by Shop.org and BizRate Research, 77 percent of
retailers reported their sales last year increased substantially on the Monday
after Thanksgiving. The growing
phenomenon is an intensification of the year-round surge of online shopping
during the workweek, changing the workplace as much as it changes shopping
patterns. At QVC.com, for example, Mondays are almost always
the biggest shopping day of the week, said company spokeswoman Bonnie Clark. Experts say this
week will bring the biggest online shopping burst ever, since holiday clicking and shipping is predicted to jump
25 to 30 percent over last year. Experts say
consumers spend their weekends window shopping, talking to friends and getting
ideas about what they need and want. Then they head back to work, where they
have high-speed Internet connections and tempting moments of downtime to get
errands done. Many
workers say they work such long hours, it's the only time they can shop online.
Several major companies said they
are fine with employees doing personal errands on the job as long as they don't
abuse the privilege. "We actually think it's productive if they do it that
way instead of running out to a suburban mall and stretching the one-hour lunch
into two," said Bob Dobkin, a spokesman for electric utility
Pepco, which has 2,500 employees in the Washington, D.C., area. "We do think it promotes a better employee
relationship." Workplace
consultants say employers' attitudes about online shopping are evolving,
generally in favor of giving more leeway. Where many companies once blocked
access to high-volume shopping sites, they now use threshold software that simply limits an
employee's time on such sites, said Susan Larson, a vice president of SurfControl, which
makes filtering software for workplaces. Today, she said, companies are more
worried about employees bringing viruses into an office network by shopping
online than they are about reduced productivity. This approach to
workplace management is good for the company and employees, said John
Challenger, chief executive of executive recruiting and consulting firm
Challenger, Gray & Christmas. "Allowing people to do some of their
personal work at work is just good policy," he said. "That blurring of work and personal life really has
completely changed the way we think about work. It's no longer true that when
you're at your desk from 9 to 5 you're at work, and when you're not at that
place you're on your personal time. That line is gone." http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002650677_online28.html |
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