Workplace harassment: A global plague amid pandemic

Workplace harassment comes in many forms, from sexual harassment to offensive jokes and to gender-based discrimination.

In China, one employee decided to stand for herself as she beat her boss with a mop after he constantly sent her lewd text messages.

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The woman has become an internet sensation in China, but the incident has also spurred up the debate about the persistence of workplace harassment.

Also, the smallest of incidents can ruin a great job and turn any company into an unproductive environment.

The story is about a government worker in China whose boss was sending her harassing text messages.

She decided to do what many workers would not dare to, as she tossed water on his face and thrashed him with the business end of a mop.

The woman has been identified as Zhou and the man has been identified as Wang, the deputy director of a state-run poverty alleviation agency.

According to reports, Wang was sending Zhou unwanted text messages, and others in the office had received similar unwelcome attention.

On being confronted, all he could do was hide his face and make failed attempts at offering an apology.

It is unclear when the incident took place, but the 14-minute video has been viewed millions of times.

Social media users were full of praises for what they called an uncommon display of resistance in a country with limited workplace protections against sexual harassment.

But, workplace harassment is all-pervasive and a 2019 survey backs this claim.

According to the survey, 25 per cent to 85 per cent of all American women experienced sexual harassment at their workplace.

In the UK, 13 per cent of women experienced various forms of verbal or visual harassment and India witnessed a 14 per cent rise in sexual harassment the very same year.

In another global survey in 2020, 58 per cent of harased women did not file a complaint.

Only 25 per cent of the victims said they could easily report the incident.

About 50 per cent of women who were victims agreed that harassment hurt their career and 99 per cent of employees said they could successfully recognise workplace harassment.

As many as 56 per cent of men believed that reported workplace harassment goes unpunished and only 1 per cent of the victims confronted their harassers.

Workplace harassment is a global plague and the root cause of why it persists is the unwillingness of a victim's colleagues to speak up and the failure of employers to implement their policies.

There is also intimidation and ridicule based on one's performance.

Often, all these forms of harassment go unreported since victims are unsure of what to do or are given lack of support from their colleagues or simply because their bosses are indispensable!