But you've blurred the lines of work by giving your people Blackberrys, by sending text messages and emails at all hours of the day and night, by calling them on cell while they're on vacation and by interrupting family get-togethers on weekends. Your business doesn't stop asking your people to work at 5 o'clock. Why should they not be able to do personal stuff on company time if they're getting company stuff done on personal time?
But that's good for the people who never seem to leave the work behind. What about those who only have to perform work between 9 and 5?
There's a old notion that says a person compulsive shopping is an attempt to fill a void in their soul. If your people are shopping online during business hours, then they're probably just filling a void left by not having meaningful work, something they can be proud of. They are disengaged employees because you, as a manager, aren't engaging them.
But then there is the Gen Y worker who, we are told, are great multi-taskers. No they are not. Gen Y has simply always had many things going on at one time. They find it easier to concentrate on several tasks at once because doing just one thing is boring - so they jump from task to task to task. So they could be shopping as a release from the boredom of putting together your latest D-U-L-L PowerPoint presentation - which will just be riveting at the next (far too lengthy) staff meeting. (Oh, and stop thinking that PowerPoint is engaging. It's no more engaging than overhead projector slides.)
People shop when they are bored or when you take their personal life away. Don't blame them. It's a response to boring work from boring managers.
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