Partner Article

'Cyber-skiving' rife over Christmas

More than half of those who plan to work between Christmas and the New Year will spend an average of two hours a day “cyber-skiving”, it is claimed. This involves browsing the internet while pretending to be busy - and equates to the loss of 151 million working hours across the UK over the three working days of the holiday.

As many as 15% of the festive workers will spend most of the day trying to avoid the watchful eye of their boss while going online, according to Hotels.com. The biggest example, it says, is emailing friends, followed by shopping on the internet, online banking and researching or booking holidays.

The biggest culprits are men, with 62% prepared to browse instead of work, while 49% of women offend in this way. Londoners are expected to be the worst skiver culprits this Christmas, followed by those from the Midlands and Wales.

As proof of the hard-working mindset of people in this part of the world, the employees least likely to indulge in this work-dodging practice are those from northern England.

Alison Couper, Hotels.com communications director, said: “Traditionally our thoughts turn to holidays and faraway places after Christmas and before the New Year celebrations kick in.”

A total of 1,000 UK adults were involved in the survey, which focused on working days December 27, 28 and 31.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .