Searching for a New Job on Company Time

Searching for a New Job on Company Time

According to a recent survey by Hudson, roughly 23% of Americans who have Internet access at work admit to having searched for a new job on their company’s time and resources. A smart bet would be that the actual percentage is even greater and that some of those polled simply chose not to disclose the truth about their job searching during work hours. It would be naive to assume otherwise. After all, when would you be most motivated to search for a better career than when you are actively in the midst of hating your current one? There are certainly some ethical issues involved in searching for a new job while being paid by your current employer, but immediate access to thousands of available positions and the relative anonymity of the Internet make the act appear to most as a sort of “victimless crime”.

Regardless of your ethical stance on the matter, it’s nearly impossible for most businesses to effectively monitor or prevent it. With Internet and e-mail access being standard in the majority of office settings, the best safeguard against employees job hunting on company time may simply be making the office atmosphere more conducive to satisfied employees. Everyone wants to make more money and most people want to climb the corporate ladder and further their careers, but these typically aren’t the types of employees that spend their time wading through job boards and posting resumes during work hours. It is usually the employees that are bored or “just going through the motions” that you’ll find wasting hours of company time looking for their dream job.

Short of IT restrictions and often costly-to-implement communications monitoring, the best solution to this problem may be making sure that the office atmosphere offers challenges and opportunities for all of employees. In that environment, the quality people will prosper and the dream job seekers will quickly become obvious and fade away.