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Many are the articles written in the past few years establishing the enormous temporal and financial losses America suffers each year due to online shopping at work. It’s enough to make anyone indulging in a little on-the-clock holiday gift-browsing—or news-reading, or bank account-checking, or what have you—feel a malingerer’s guilt.

But what few news organizations, and fewer bosses, may also tell you is that employees allowed to occasionally surf the Web are about 9% more productive than those who aren’t, according to a study conducted by the University of Melbourne’s Dr. Brent Coker. Evidently, an occasional, brief zone-out refreshes the mind and renews one’s ability to concentrate (The keyword being brief). But between Coker’s study, the numerous articles on employee Internet-shopping-as-time-drain, and the Cyber Monday brouhaha, one has to ask—do Americans really shop online at work all that much?

Do they ever. According to the National Retail Federation, 55.8% of adults who have Internet access at work, or 1 in 1.79 (56%), will plan to browse or shop for holiday gifts online while in the office. That's about 72.8 million people. If each one shops online for just one hour, the total man-hours add up to more than 8,300 man-years—or, if you prefer, 8.3 man-millennia—gone into cyber-shopping. That is not to say that the cyber-Christmas-shopping season as a whole sees America running at a net loss. All those man hours spent malingering are also spent injecting capital back into the American economy.

The term "man-hours" is appropriately descriptive of online shopping on the clock. Men, it turns out, are more likely than women to plan on shopping for holiday gifts while at work. The odds a man who has Internet access at work will plan to browse or shop for holiday gifts online while in the office are 1 in 1.66 (60%), while the odds a woman who has Internet access at work will plan to do the same are 1 in 1.94 (52%). But, man or woman, be apprised while browsing for Christmas gifts from your cubicle: the odds a company monitors employee Internet use are 1 in 1.52, or 66%.