San Francisco - One-fourth of employees who use a computer at work say they've looked for a new job online, according to a survey conducted for Hudson, a staffing and consulting firm.
Younger workers are more likely than their older counterparts to surf online job sites: 33 percent of workers ages 18 to 29 said they've searched for a new job online while at work. The rate among workers ages 30 to 39 was next-highest, at 31 percent.
Among workers ages 40 to 49, 21 percent said they used work computers to conduct job searches, as did 15 percent of those ages 50 to 64, according to the survey conducted by Rasmussen Reports of almost 2,700 U.S. workers who use computers at work. The margin of error is plus or minus three percentage points.
Just 12 percent of workers overall said they surf the Internet for personal reasons most days or every day, but the portion jumps among younger workers: 20 percent of the 18- to 29-year-olds said they surf online for personal purposes most days or every day, compared with 13 percent of 30- to 39-year-olds, 10 percent of 40- to 49-year-olds and 8 percent of those ages 50 to 64.
When it comes to e-mail use, almost 30 percent of workers said they send and receive personal e-mails most days or every day, a percentage that held about the same across all age groups.
And, when managers are compared with nonmanagers, the personal use of the Internet was about equal, though managers were more likely to send and receive personal e-mails: 33 percent of managers said they sent such e-mails most days or every day, compared with 26 percent of nonmanagers.
"When you're talking about companies really wanting to retain their employees and deal effectively with work/life balance issues, you'll find they're going to have some tolerance for this. This is one of those key issues to retaining your employees," said Kris Rzepkowski, interactive manager at Hudson North America.
Hudson is a division of New York-based Hudson Highland Group Inc.
That doesn't mean all personal surfing and e-mailing is going to go over well with your boss.
Twenty-six percent of the workers said they knew someone at their company who had been reprimanded or fired for misusing e-mail or the Web, according to the survey.
Forty-eight percent of the workers said their employers monitor e-mails and Web site use, 40 percent said their companies did not monitor and 12 percent were unsure.