Our week at work, August 9-15

By Josephine Asher
CareerOne looks at the week’s news from the world of work.
Sexual harassment
The topic of sexual harassment in the workplace has dominated career and employment news in recent weeks since 25-year-old former publicity co-ordinator Kristy Fraser-Kirk lodged a landmark $37 million claim against retail giant David Jones.
And the publicity has exposed how much it’s happening in our workplaces. According to Discrimination Commissioner Elizabeth Broderick 22 per cent of women have experienced sexual harassment in the workplace but, of those, only 16 per cent made a complaint.
She’s calling for greater rights to investigate workplaces where harassment is prevalent.
READ MORE: Sexual harassment too often hidden
Unfortunately for male bosses, they’re being singled out as the most likely to offend.
The profile of a serial sexual harasser is an older male boss who often underpays wages, starts false rumours about their targets and pressures the women into drinking or taking drugs, a study by SA Unions’ Young Workers Legal Service claims.
READ MORE: Sexual harassers mostly older male bosses
Gender battle
Despite men taking a hit in a lot of media this week, a UK study has revealed workers prefer male bosses to females.
A quarter of women in the study accused female bosses of backstabbing and bringing their personal lives into the office and three-quarters of men agreed they’d rather work for a man than a woman.
READ MORE: Workers prefer male managers
Employment prospects
The jobs market is still tentative as Australian businesses move out of GFC mode and regain confidence and signs indicate that activity will pick up over next three months.
If you’re looking for part time or contract work, you’re in an advantageous position.
During July, the number of full time jobs dropped by 4,200 while 27,770 new part time jobs were created.
Peter Gleeson, Executive General Manager Recruitment for Chandler Macleod Group, puts the shift down to companies taking a “try before you buy” or a low risk approach to filling gaps in their teams by hiring part timers and contractors.
He says businesses are suffering a skills shortage, partly from their failure to train or upskill during the last two years.
READ MORE: Employers favouring part time workers to fill gaps
Salary expectations
The banking and finance, health and resources sectors would continue to strengthen their teams, while the retail and hospitality and retail sectors would take longer to recover, according to Gleeson.
That’s good news for employees in finance. And workers in this industry aren’t afraid to jump ship.
Employees in the accounting and finance sector would rather quit than talk to their boss about a pay rise, with only 57 per cent only discussing salary during their annual performance review.
Director of Robert Half Andrew Brushfield advises accounting and finance staff to at least have a pay rise conversation with their manager before jumping ship.
READ MORE: Finance workers will quit before asking for a pay rise
Switching companies is not a bad idea in the current climate, as you can see from our story on salary trends.
READ MORE: Salary trends a mixed picture
Good talent can expect to bag pay increases of between five and 10 per cent if they move jobs, according to Michael Page.
Graduates
If you’re sitting back at uni preparing your post-graduation holiday, you might want to put it the trip planning for a few months.
Industry experts have urged final-year university students to actively pursue employment. If not, they risk missing the boat.
Graduate Careers Australia Bruce Guthrie says students should be doing everything they can to make themselves look employable.
READ MORE: Students urged to join the hard sell
That means getting their resumes in order, practising their interview techniques and – most importantly – sending out feelers to potential employers in their chosen fields.
Take a look at our advice to help you get started:
BUILDING A RESUME
WRITING A COVERLETTER
