cheryl comeau-kirschner

IF you suspect your employees are surfing the Web for personal reasons, you're right. @Plan's latest research reveals that a significant number of workers are shopping, e-mailing friends, checking stocks, or just browsing. But these same employees are usually working longer hours by staying connected to the office via the Internet, home computers, and Palm Pilots.

"Our once-accepted definitions of a regular business day and personal time are now blurred and we see a new work culture emerging in America," says president and CEO Mark Wright. "The Internet and new technologies are linking people to their jobs for much longer hours and so there is an apparent tradeoff with many workers. People may feel if they work from home and check e-mails on vacation, they can occasionally log on from their cubicles to shop or browse the Web."

And before you think about stripping away Internet privileges, consider this: 82 percent vs. 7 percent of the respondents believe that the Internet has made them more productive.