The day after Thanksgiving poses a policy question for managers. It is the traditional start of the Christmas shopping season in the US. There is a growing trend toward online shopping and some of that is done by shoppers using work computers for their online shopping because the computers at work are faster, more secure, or both than their computers at home.
There are several possible reactions to this trend. You can:
- Forbid employees to use company computers to shop online at any time,
- Restrict use of the company computers for online shopping to the employees' breaks and lunch period,
- Rationalize that employees will be more productive if they can do their shopping online instead of running around on their lunch break,
- Decide your employees will be happier if they work for a company that lets them handle personal business at the office, or
- Write and publish a policy in your employee manual that clearly spells out how and when company computers can be used for personal business, including online shopping.
Personally, I prefer the last option.
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