Saudi Arabia: Fine Line Between Work, Harassment

RIYADH, 13 June 2008 — Women in Saudi Arabia say that working as customer care representatives is a problem due to the propensity of men who call them to crack jokes, make inappropriate comments and even proposition them. And because of this overt sexual harassment by customers, women tend to quit these jobs.

“In spite of the good salaries, these women rarely stay in their jobs for more than three years,” said Adel Alomair, the head of customer care at a major bank in Riyadh.

Meanwhile the bank is in the process of expanding its customer service department, but may resort to hiring men if they can’t retain women.

Jobs such as customer service are ideal for addressing the high unemployment of women in the Kingdom, which is officially estimated at around 25 percent, a figure that would be higher if it included women who are not actively seeking employment.

Yomna Abdul-Jabbar, a 24-year-old Saudi who works in a customer services department at a software company in Riyadh, said she thinks the harassment from men who call in is due to the novelty of customer service by telephone in Saudi society and because not all Saudi men are accustomed to speaking to unrelated women over the phone.

“Many guys simply wish to speak to a lady!” she said. “And they assume we’re young and single. I receive two or three calls every day from men asking for my personal cell phone number, or even inquiring about marriage.”

Her colleague Mona, a 26-year-old Saudi with an associate’s degree in computer applications, says men often can’t accept getting help from women, and demand to speak to a male representative.

“I always try to be friendly and helpful, but I often hear something like, ‘Please, girl, put me through to a man.’”

Not all Saudi women have this cavalier attitude about the rudeness of men who call them. Norah A, who deals with clients over the phone for a marketing company in Riyadh, says she’s fed up with the constant sexual harassment and rudeness and is looking for a different job.

“Being verbally harassed is very devastating, and it affects my vocational development,” she said. “One caller was asking how would I feel if he circulated my work phone number and extension on online forums. Unfortunately abusive callers don’t receive any serious action by my company,” said Norah.

“The biggest action taken by her management was reporting to the telecom company to black list the numbers of the annoying people.”

Jihan Awwad, a 31-year-old Saudi customer service representative, says that she’s learned to accept these calls as part of the job.

“I used to be shocked at the ferocity of the verbal attacks I used to encounter, but I’ve gotten used to it,” she said.

Jihan has some advice for women customer reps who receive calls from perverts and other miscreants: hang up the phone.

“There is something called the: ‘end call button’ on our system,” she said. “We’ve been trained to press it with a smile as soon as we get a rude or abusive call.”

-- Najah Alosaimi, Arab News