Web Surfing on the Sly: The Gender Divide

When it comes to personal Web surfing at work, men are bigger offenders than women. In the 2006 Web@Work survey sponsored by security and filtering software company Websense Inc., 500 employees were surveyed about their on-the-job Web surfing habits.

Overall, 65% of men say they access nonwork-related Web sites while at work, compared with 58% of women. For men, top nonwork destinations included sites about weather, personal e-mail services, sports and investments. Women most frequently visited travel and shopping sites. Just as men won't ask for directions, they also apparently don't seek help when their computers are affected by spyware: 64% of women ask their IT departments for help, compared with 30% of men.

It might seem like goofing off, but employees take it seriously: About half of men and women say they'd forgo their morning coffee rather than surrender personal Web surfing privileges.

Megan Santosus, a former senior editor at CIO Decisions, is now a features editor for SearchDataCenter.com. Write to her at msantosus@techtarget.com.

This was first published in July 2006

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