For the office-workers that take public transit to work, the daily commute is not just about overcrowding on buses and trains, it is also about sexual harassment fostered by being pressed in with, and up against, dozens of other people. Recently, Chinese job site zhaopin.com did a two week survey to investigate sexual harassment at work and in public places. Over 5,000 office workers participated in the poll. Results show that sexual harassment encounters at bars are the most common and over 50% of those surveyed said that they've been harassed by crude and dirty jokes from the opposite sex. Almost 30% of the men surveyed cited sexual harassment encounters in public places while 40% of the women said that they've encountered sexual harassment at work.

Of the types of sexual harassment in public places, survey results showed 54.7% of those polled cited physical harassment onboard public transit. Explicit language was the second most common form of public sexual harassment and sexual texts and other kinds of messages were third. In the poll, 67% of office-workers admitted that they've been harassed with crude and dirty jokes from the opposite sex.

In which public places are you most likely to encounter sexual harassment? Survey results showed that bars topped the list with 30.1%. “Secluded and unfrequented areas at the office,” were also cited as common places for harassment – much more frequent (2.2 percentage indexes more) than encounters on buses.

In the surveys, 20.6% cited buses as the public space where you're most likely to get harassed; a whopping 12.1% higher than subways.

On the other hand, sexual harassment at work seems to be less frequent than in public places. Results showed that 38.8% of Chinese office workers have experienced sexual harassment at work. Over 15% of men polled had experienced sexual harassment at work. The most common types of encounter cited were physical harassment (68.2%) and explicit language (44.9%). Inappropriate e-mails and instant messaging were also found to be common at work.

What do you do when you've encountered sexual harassment in the workplace？Over 65.3% said that they will choose to be silent about it; 14.8% said that they will quit their job immediately; and only 10% said that they will stand up to the person doing the harassment. A scant 5.9% responded that they will report the harassment to relevant departments and office administrations – perhaps an understandable position, as survey results also showed that over 80% of work place harassment comes from bosses and heads of departments.

Source: ifeng.com

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