New research by Massey University Business School has revealed one third of the Kiwis they surveyed have experienced workplace sexual harassment in the past six months.
The study found suggestive stories, sexist comments and crude sexual remarks to be the most common forms of harassment, impacting wellbeing and overall productivity.
"It is showing a problem in the New Zealand workplace," lead author Jarrod Haar told Newshub.
The survey involved more than 1000 workers across a range of genders, ages, cities and jobs.
It found 35.8 percent of women reported incidents of sexual harassment at work, compared with 30 percent of men.
Female respondents also reported higher frequencies of harassment. Haar believes the impacts are far-reaching.
"It directly impacts performance," he explained.
The study found the most common form of sexual harassment was the telling of suggestive stories accounting for 33 percent of all reports. This was followed by sexist comments, making up 25 percent and crude sexual remarks on 23 percent.
According to the data, there was little difference across job sectors but, when it came to positions within a company, female managers were the most vulnerable - with more than half reporting sexual harassment.
Workplace consultant Shayne Mathieson helps companies to clean up their acts.
"The two most important things would be the behaviour that's modelled by the senior executive team," she said. "The second would be if they're around or observe any inappropriate behaviour for senior executives to intervene in some way."
She believes if they don't, they seem to be condoning it.
But Mathieson admits "we're dealing with humans, so no, it's never going to be possible to completely stamp it".
"But I think organisations can put actions into place and I think individuals can take some actions."
