From Selling Power …Market research firm IDC states that half of all Internet-enabled employees access the Web while at work for personal tasks, such as reading the news (81 percent), personal email (61 percent), online banking (58 percent), travel (56 percent) and shopping (52 percent).

That’s really creating a conflict between management and the employees… Almost two-thirds of companies monitor workers’ Internet connections and one out of two store and reviewing employee email… Read more about this in the Selling Power article

What is the correct balance to have? This is a great discussion point for employers and key knowledge workers…

From BusinessWeek - Nick Sparagis asks a question no doubt on the minds of anyone who logs onto personal e-mail while at work: The Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) scandal has brought to the surface the curiosity I have had for quite a long time about snooping. I know that using corporate e-mail is always a bad idea for personal use, but how about Web-based e-mail programs like Yahoo! Mail (YHOO) or Google’s Gmail (GOOG) inside your corporate network? Can a company read these messages also, if they go through the corporate network? How about my instant messages?

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