SEXUAL HARASSMENT

Nov 18, 2017 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

To surprise her husband, an executive’s wife stopped by his office. When she opened the door, she found him with his secretary sitting in his lap.

Without hesitating, he dictated, “And in conclusion, gentlemen, budget cuts or no budget cuts, I cannot continue to operate this office with just one chair.”

We have had a lot of situations like the ones above in our offices. There are lots of men and women who use their positions of authority to have affairs with their staff.

One of the stories which was recently hot on social media was about a senior officer in a government office who was actually having an affair with another person and offering him part-time jobs with her department.

This is one of the dangers which bosses guard against. There has to be some code of conduct which should guide what happens when a senior person has a relationship with another member of staff whether full-time or part-time.

It is unlawful to outlaw relationships in any workplace. Where one has to be careful though is when there are relationships in which one party has power and the other does not. The powerless individual may be pressured into having sexual relationships with senior executives out of fear of dismissal or in order to gain favour.

In the past, certain institutions used to prohibit husband and wife working at the same place. If you happen to marry someone in your workplace, one or the other had to resign. This rule cannot be applied today because any company doing this will face a lawsuit. And this is it is important that there be some code to guide things such as promotions wherein the person doing the promotion is related or has a relationship with the person to be promoted.

Sexual harassment is rife in offices in Guyana. Women are the victims of this sort of harassment. In one government agency, a Casanova was implanted by the new government. He was running after skirt tails all day. Probably still is, seeing that he is an untouchable.

Women must be protected from sexual predators. A man should not be using his position of power to extract sexual favours from women. This has been happening for decades in Guyana and needs to be brought to an end. A lot of lives have been messed up because of this. A lot of marriages are affected because of it.

There is little recourse for the victims. One guy had the habit of hitting on a particular girl who worked with him in a factory. One day she could not take it anymore and she went to her boss, another male, and complained how the guy had told her she looked sexy.

The boss looked at her and asked. “And you give him wrong for saying that!” That was the end of the complaint.

The government speaks a lot about social cohesion. But it should begin with organisational cohesion because there are lot of wrong things happening within organisations. And women are the ones mostly affected by this.

Sexual harassment legislation needs to be introduced. The government should take the lead in tabling such legislation and in developing rules to prevent sexual harassment in government offices.

The problem is not just confined to the government offices. Any woman can tell you what happens when she passes near to a construction site. Women are greeted with hoots and sexually suggestive comments. This too is a form of harassment.

Things got so bad at one factory site that the boss was forced to erect a sign which read: “Warning to young ladies: If you wear loose clothes beware of the machinery. If you wear tight clothes beware of the machinist.”

Some people feel that sexual harassment rules can lead to unfair dismissals. It is argued, for example that some persons may treat genuine compliments as a form of sexual harassment. However, there is always a way of differentiating between the two.

A woman was at work when a man said, “Your hair smells nice.”

She went straight to her boss and said, “I’ve been sexually harassed. A man said my hair smells nice.”

The boss in return said, “What’s wrong with that, it does?”

She said, “The man who said that was a midget.”

Discover more from Kaieteur News

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Latest News