What comes after Black Friday? 

Cyber Monday.  That’s the online equivalent of Black Friday, with deals galore for the online shopper.  This year, it’s expected to generate more sales than Black Friday for the first time. 

I can tell you that I do almost no Holiday shopping at brick-and-mortar stores any longer; everything is done online, and it all shows up at my door.  I can even avoid gift wrapping if I prefer to pay them to do it.  Of course, no online retailer can match my taste and care when selecting wrappings, ribbons, and…  ahh, who am I kidding?

According to the National Retail Federation, 88% of retailers will have special Cyber Monday promotions this year.  This is up from 72% in 2007. 

They also report that online sales for the 2010 Holiday Season are expected to reach $32.4 billion, and that is an 11% increase over last year.  Further, 70.1 million people are estimated to be shopping online from the office this season for Holiday gifts.

In view of all of this, a Careerbuilder online survey reports that 21% of employers have fired someone for non-work related internet activities.  5% have fired someone for holiday shopping at work. 

I got to thinkin.’  If over 70 million folks are shopping online at work this holiday season, and 5% of employers have fired someone for doing this (and we’ll assume one “fire” per employer), then 3.5 million people have been fired for doing this!  Of course, we don’t know over what period of time.  For the fun of it, let’s just say that it’s been over the course of… oh… a decade.  That would mean that 350,000 people might lose their job this year for this!  Fired – for thinking of their friends; their spouses, their lovers, their kids, their co-workers…..

As I’ve said many times:  Be careful out there.  If I can save just one person’s job this Holiday season… 

:^ )

By the way, the same Careerbuilder survey says that 50% of employers block employees from using certain websites at work.  I am frankly surprised that this figure is not higher.

Novermber 28^th:  On this day in 1895, America’s 1^st auto race starts, with 6 cars, over the course of 55 miles:  The winner averaged 7 MPH.