Professional jealousy is a behaviour that is harboured by a fellow employee or a group of employees towards the visible success of a fellow employee. The jealousy of envy is just part of the workplace terrorism usually displayed by unscrupulous employees, and it is also characterised by resentment and or natural hatred.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission defines sexual harassment as the unwanted sexual advances, or requests of sexual favours and other miscellaneous behaviours that may include spoken and physical actions that create a hostile or unbearable workplace. Sexual harassment guidelines have been formulated to protect individuals from hurtful and unwarranted sexual conduct among employees.
Be as it may, many vengeful and unscrupulous fellow employees have turned these guidelines into a weapon of resentment, envy and or jealousy against employees who work hard and seem to achieve better results than others. The jealousy may sometimes come from the clear fact that the employee also achieves more in his or her personal development. It can also be the fact that the employee is well-liked by the workplace population, and the jealous employees feel dominated by the more achieving employee. The jealous employees may just want to destroy a successful employee, to gain leverage on the employee by reducing the trust bestowed on him by the employer or fellow employees, to gain leverage in solving existing disputes, to demoralise the employee or the power the employee wield in driving change or the direction of the workplace/organisation. It may also be to destroy the chances of the employee gaining traction in the workplace and getting career growth within the workplace, like getting a promotion.
The jealous employees want to damage the social standing, reputation of their fellow employees for nefarious reasons, kill the career of the employee and inflict emotional terrorism to create distress, anxiety, depression, and the likelihood of suicide.
The character of weaponisation of sexual harassment guidelines is as follows:
- Personal vendetta.
- Professional jealousy.
- Power play and struggles.
- The exploitation of the workplace culture of taking sexual harassment seriously to their unscrupulous advantage.
CONCLUSSION
Organisations or companies must create a balanced workplace where genuine cases of sexual harassment are taken seriously and ensure that the weaponisation of the sexual harassment guidelines is dealt with seriously to protect everyone in the workplace. The following can serve as ways of managing and protecting everyone from the dynamics of sexual harassment, real and fake harassment:
- Education and awareness campaigns.
- Sexual Harassment guidelines ambassadors.
- The protection of the accused.
- Stressing legal and fair investigation guidelines.
- Barring of nocturnal investigations by jealous employees.
- Punishment towards fake sexual harassment cases.
- Allow for the recourse of the terrorised employees against sexual harassment terrorists.
Lastly, the sexual harassment terrorists are evil employees closer to the devil worshippers. There is no better word to define these evil predators and terrorists. They are undermining the good work that South Africa is fighting so hard to defeat. They are unpatriotic fellows in our country, and they deserve to be charged with treason.
THE BALANCE TO PROTECT THE ACCUSED AND THE ACCUSER IS PIVOTAL.
AUTHOR: DR SEFOKO RAMOSHABA
064 709 2097
8 Comments
Well articulated
Great work keep it up.
The article brings to light an important and often overlooked issue—the weaponization of sexual harassment policies driven by professional jealousy. It underscores the need for workplaces to foster environments where success is celebrated, genuine harassment is addressed with seriousness, and misuse of policies is prevented through fair, transparent processes.
For maximum impact, the article would benefit from a more measured tone, emphasizing empathy for all parties involved and reinforcing the importance of protecting victims while safeguarding against abuse of the system. This balanced approach will help create safer, more respectful, and more productive workplaces.
Well-done
In this article, I learned a lot about maintaining professionalism in the workplace and how serious issues like sexual harassment can sometimes be misused for personal agendas. The author raises important points about the need to protect both the accuser and the accused, ensuring fairness, integrity, and justice in every case. This article has reminded me how crucial it is to foster a healthy and ethical work environment, where real cases of harassment are taken seriously — while also guarding against false allegations driven by jealousy or malice. Balance, education, and due process must remain at the heart of workplace policies.
Yes, it is very tru broer.
Great Work
This is really powerful and will be beneficial to both employers and employees. Thank you for sharing this well written piece.