Perhaps they should be called “sexretaries.”
Some savvy, not to mention salacious, entrepreneurs have decided that more than sexually suggestive advertising is needed to stimulate the recession-bound economy. So two-for-one job offers seeking secretaries for work and intimacy can now be found on almost any Ukrainian recruitment website.
Not just anyone can apply.
Single “girls” under 26 who have good looks, language skills and administrative aptitude are in demand. The built-in “extra” duty of sleeping with the boss usually comes at the end of the posting.
In return, the “girls” hired get free lunches, company outings, a mobile phone and a monthly salary up to $1,000, a third higher than a regular pay of an assistant or secretary.
One such employer calling itself the “World Finance Center” from ukrjob.net even mentions career growth but asks for three pictures before an interview – close-up, general and bikini.
Many Ukrainian hunters of secretaries for thrills provide only e-mails in their contact details. But an employment agency in Moscow has nothing to hide. Recruiters from Ivershin’s Luxury Assistants, registered as Install Ltd. in St Petersburg, are determined to make every boss’s dream come true.
On their website, they pledge to find an assistant who will “make your working days a lot more interesting and diverse – it’s just what you were missing to get a full satisfaction from your job.”
For legal purposes, they posted a disclaimer to reject charges of procuring prostitution. “Intimus in Latin means deep, inner, personal,” it says on their website. Prostitution, however, entails systematic paid contact with more than one partner without mutual appeal. In Ivershin’s business, “close relations happen with only one manager free of charge given their shared attraction.” Suitable contenders are encouraged to apply for these work-play jobs paying from $3,000 a month.
The Moscow edition of the tabloid “Komsomolskaya Pravda,” in its Jan. 22 issue, published an undercover report in which journalist Stanislav Babitskiy tried to find an assistant for a make-believe oil tycoon. A recruitment agent boasted to Babitskiy that, for the past two months alone, the business for “sexretaries” did better than all of last year. They have allegedly employed 638 women for such duties.
Republished in Ukraine in February, the article generated a few positive online comments from men. User Pasha said: “I don’t hire prostitutes but think that this type of service is necessary. Women became too brazen with their requests. And these paid lovers will set up a fair price.”
“It’s a great article. I wanted to hire a secretary and you suggested a great alternative. Are there any agencies in Kyiv as well?” inquired user Serg.
Kyiv, however, has not caught up with Moscow yet.
The Kyiv Post approached some employment agencies anonymously, but they refused to help. Some even took offense.
An online recruiter, Work.com.ua, however, did not deny that these vacancies pop up once in a while. Head of sales, Maria Taranova, said flatly that job offers of erotic character are banned by her company. “Once we ran an ad of a dancer. But when moderators read in the message that pole dancing is offered, they took it down,” she said. An illegal posting can hang on the website for 10 minutes or more before an IT specialist removes it.
Taranova said vacancies seeking sexual favors are immune from economic cycles. “These ads appear time and again,” she said.
Leader of grassroots women’s organization Femen, Anna Hutsol, however, saw a direct correlation between an economic slump and blunt ads. “Sexual perversions are on the rise now. Girls are afraid to lose their jobs and employers take advantage of it.” Hutsol explained that most targeted women are afraid to say no, let alone seek justice in court. “Women do not feel protected in Ukraine because in our country they are habitually blamed for everything. If she takes her boss to court, he will make it look like she tried seducing him.”
Senior lawyer from Vasil, Kisil and Partners, Oksana Voinorovska, confirmed the weakness of Ukrainian laws in this sphere. She said she could not recall any litigation on sex offenses in the workplace in Ukraine. “The law which defined sexual harassment for the first time in Ukraine came into effect only in January 2006, so it’s quite fresh.” Sexually charged ads are hard to classify as illegal because “the act of harassment has not actually taken place,” added Voinorovska. Witness accounts and audio recordings are necessary to bring an employer to the account.
“But I think it will take a while before basic human rights, women rights in this case, will get necessary protection in this country,” concluded Voinorovska.
Interpreter Kateryna Ivanova, 27, thinks that sexually suggestive offers are not new to Ukraine. Seeking a job of an assistant to a general manager two years ago, she was offered more responsibilities than expected.
“I put on a strict office suit for an interview,” Ivanova said. “A personnel manager asked me what style in clothing I prefer and mentioned that a boss doesn’t like women looking like grey mice. She then explained that he prefers a seductive look. I laughed as I didn’t know how else to react and asked if that was what she was thinking about. She nodded.”
Women like Ivanova are not an exception in Ukraine. Some walk out of similar interviews repulsed but glad they were informed of “work” habits earlier than later. Most of them do not even consider suing employers due to low trust in Ukrainian courts and in explicit sexual harassment laws. And yet there are some who will take the job. Ivershin’s Luxury Assistants from Moscow said they do not have official partners in Kyiv but still managed to find four candidates in a few days time following an anonymous request.
