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Female workers claim they are harassed because they are mostly employed in inferior grades and males take advantage of them because of their biological make-up

John Manzongo At the Workplace
The subject of sexual harassment at the workplace remains one of the hottest potatoes and often provides juicy, sleazy titbits of what happens behind closed doors. There is so much debate as to who is the more vulnerable worker – male or female. It is not a one-way street. Sexual harassment in simple terms means any unwelcome action that causes the other person of the opposite sex to feel uneasy, uncomfortable, ashamed, irritated or embarrassed.
Such action includes explicit comments, text messages, explicit videos which circulate through forums such as social media.

It also includes actions like deliberate bodily contact such as rubbing oneself on the body of the other person of the opposite sex intentionally or by accident.
Sexual harassment also is exhibited in unwarranted gaze on the person of the opposite sex in a manner that makes her or him feel ashamed or uncomfortable.
Sexual harassment includes persistent love proposals.

In African culture it is widely believed that women do not accept a love proposals at the first attempt and male colleagues may think persistence is the way to go.
However, this may inadvertently amount to a sexual offence.

With today’s fashion where dresses expose women’s cleavage, many males are claiming that women are harassing them through such dressing.
But then retracing the olden days, where people used to only wear clothes to cover the half (or less) the body down while their upper bodies were exposed, how were they living?

Female workers I have interacted with said they were more vulnerable to sexual harassment than their male counterparts.
Inasmuch as there are few reported cases of sexual harassment, most of the offences go unreported.

The only time where people hear of sexual harassment is when someone is aggrieved, for example when she is sacked from her job and then she claims to have been a victim because she turned down a sexual advance or love proposal from a male colleague or boss.

There are different schools of thought as to how and why sexual harassment sometimes seems to be sanitised or swept under the carpet.
It is said various incidents are going unreported because females fear to lose their jobs.

The reason they do not report is when they go through disciplinary hearings in which they are forced to prove their cases and sometimes they will not have any tangible evidence except for their word against the perpetrators.

It is worse when the perpetrator goes unpunished and everyone sees them as “loose”.
Female workers say mostly they decide to keep quiet or are forced to accept some of the harassment because society widely accepts some things as normal and such things include sexually suggestive messages, emails, videos and many others.

It would be advisable that if one is uninterested in the content of such messages, they quickly warn the sender to stop. If it does not then he or she must report the matter.
Some women allege that they do not report because the perpetrators are their bosses or superiors and they are afraid of losing their jobs.

Some cunning males always turn the tables saying the woman is the one who started it or may even claim it was consensual.
Female workers claim they are harassed because they are mostly employed in inferior grades and males take advantage of them because of their biological make-up.
They say sexual harassment is used to demoralise them, reduce them and the weak or desperate ones mostly submit so that life becomes easy for them.

Women fail to report for fear of being isolated by others. Comments such as “your body structure, eish …”; “I wish you were mine …”; or “I wonder how you are in bed with such a beautiful structure” are commonplace.

One common trick is for some men to “ask for a hug” whereby they end up going beyond what such a filial gesture calls for.
Some females blame dressing patterns of their colleagues nowadays which they say leave a lot to be desired.

They argue that there is need for women to dress in a “civilised” manner and that employers must enforce a strict dress code at work to reduce sexual harassment cases.
Male workers I interacted with said women were responsible for fuelling sexual harassment, especially in the way they dress. They claim the short skirts they wear and the cleavage are causing it.

On the other hand, many males are suffering in silence because they are being harassed on a daily basis by women.
Biologically males and females are different so if women wear short skirts it ignites something in men. Some women are in the habit of sending sexually suggestive messages and videos to males and they end up thinking it is a way of courting or attracting them.

Male workers are their own victims sometimes, at least biologically speaking.
Many female workers believe that if they offer themselves to males their life will be easy as they have found easy prey in the opposite sex.

Some males claim their female counterparts also make themselves vulnerable when they accept favours from male bosses for things that they can do themselves.
There are no free lunch these days.

If workmates go for a trip outside where they are required to sleep, instead of paying for their accommodation some females end up accepting male overtures to pay for them and in some way they become vulnerable because they will be owing him a favour.

In most cases this leaves women vulnerable to abuse. Cases where someone reports a case of sexual harassment to the human resources department or Labour Court are a rare find in Zimbabwe.

The only time we hear of such is when filling for damages especially after dismissal. That is when they claim they turned down so and so’s love proposal or sexual advances.
How come we do not hear of cases just based on sexual harassment and not tied to other labour issues?

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