How to Shop Cyber Monday at Work and Avoid Detection

Cyber Monday is not as famous as her big brother Black Friday. She's the Joan to John Cusak, the Maggie to Jake Gyllenhaal. The secret to her slow and steady success: everything she does is good. Unlike Black Friday (and John and Jake), who has just as many downsides as there are great savings, Cyber Monday is great and only great.

Cyber Monday has all the super-savings perks you enjoy on Black Friday without the crazy lines, the early morning wake up calls, the aggressive suburban moms clamoring for DVD players and no-stick frying pans. Take the day off and shop to your delight, on the couch and in your slippers with your credit card in hand. Sip on champagne, if you please – it might as well be a holiday!

If taking a day off to indulge in decadent discounts isn't an option, do not fret! There are ways to snab the super savings you love while at work – even with your boss patrolling the workplace. Here's how.

3 Tips to Cyber Monday Shopping at Work

1. Act like you're still working. It's all in the body language, baby. Glower at your computer screen. Type ferociously. Tap your pen on your desk as you stare into space and "brain storm." Make a couple calls if you have to, print off some pages. Give a Joan-Cusack-in-School-of-Rock performance and no one will be the wiser. On the other hand, pull a John-in-Serendipity and you're as good as fired.


2. Disguise the browser (and your credit card). The last thing you want is that frantic MINIMIZE frenzy and the resulting anxiety when senior management is cruising the cubicle pit, preying on poor minions just looking for an honest deal. Consider:
   
   • Resizing your browser to fit inside your email preview pane. Look at you, answering all your emails on time!
   • Practicing the Alt + Tab toggle that allows you to flip between screens on your monitor without having to fumble with your mouse.
   • Disguising your credit card number, security code, and expiration date as a sticky note reminder taped to our monitor.
   
   
3. Trick the eye. It's the coup de grace of all browsing trickery! Firefox users can make any webpage look just like a document out of word.
   
   • Click "view"
   • "Page style"
   • "No style"
   
   This barebones webpage has none of the glitz and Flash glamour of a normal website, but still allows you to window shop like you always would. No one will recognize Zappos without its trademark footprints, and what looks like your month-end report is actually new shoes! Brilliant!

Disclaimer

While these tips are savvy enough to trick the common work curmudgeon, they are by no means fool proof. If you think there is serious risk of you getting in trouble at work – or if your boss has one of those creepy internet tracking programs - call in sick with a case of the Cyber Monday Shivers and shop to your heart's content from the comfort of your couch.

Guest contributor Emma Stover is a savvy internet shopper counting the days until Cyber Monday. She writes for Creditnet, your online resource for no interest credit cards and credit information.

---

Editor's note: Have you seen the FatWallet "Boss Key"? FatWallet > My Account > Tools & Subscriptions, scroll down to Boss Key:

"Scared of getting caught reading FatWallet when you should be doing something else? Quickly hide FatWallet and bring up a different website of your choice."