This file photo shows people crossing a street in Seoul. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Dec. 12 (Korea Bizwire) — One in 10 office workers has been asked out consistently at work whether they like it or not, a survey showed Sunday.
A pro-labor civic group Gabjil 119 conducted a nationwide online survey of 1,000 office workers, 11 percent of whom said they had been asked out by colleagues at work.
More women (14.9 percent) had been asked out by their colleagues than men (8.1 percent), and more irregular workers (13.8 percent) had been asked out by their colleagues than regular workers (9.2 percent).
In many cases, their colleagues forced them to eat lunch together, said they got jealous if they had lunch with a different person, and resorted to verbal abuse when refused to meet privately.
At 72 percent, a majority of the respondents said company regulations should be introduced to ban romantic relationships between a superior and his/her direct subordinate.
Among those who had experienced sexual harassment at work (290 respondents), 45.9 percent said the perpetrator was the worker’s superior.
Among those who had experienced sexual violence (173 respondents), 44.5 percent said the perpetrator was the worker’s superior, followed by colleagues (22 percent) and clients (19.7 percent).
When asked if their employer was doing enough to protect employees from sexual crimes inside the company, 51.5 percent said no.
Lina Jang (linajang@koreabizwire.com)
