Leader: The right to shop at work

We heard this week that many of us will be using time at work to shop online for Christmas presents. This isn't down to the fatter pipes many of us have in the office. Or that now it is December we're overwhelmed with festive spirit.

And more importantly, this publication contends, it isn't because we want, above all else, to cyberloaf.

Mixing our private lives with our working lives is now natural. It wasn't always thus. This debate has been reignited by the soft issue of Christmas shopping online but it stems from the harder debate about working hours that have been extended in recent years - by pressure to do more in the face of fierce competition but just as much by technologies, many of which enable mobile and wireless communication.

Recently a silicon.com reporter was at an event, speaking to a prominent CIO. He was told by said CIO that living with a mobile, laptop and - of course - a BlackBerry is fine these days, even if it does mean he is sometimes contacted late at night or even while away on holiday.

"The payback is that if I need to take an hour or two to do something important during the week I can," he said. "And my employer understands that."

But clearly all employers aren't that enlightened. Nor, let's face it, are we all in such a position to shape internal policies.

The good news? Just as many organisations that Britons work for these days have no idea how much extra time staff put in - remember that quaint thing called 'paid overtime'? - they also have no idea that life is made bearable by paying that bill online, emailing a family member or, yes, engaging in some e-tail ahead of Christmas.