Deborah Garlick
CEO and Founder, Henpicked: Menopause In The Workplace
Rising awareness of hormone health demands recognition of the impact of symptoms on women in the workplace.
With rising awareness of hormone health comes the need to recognise the impact of symptoms on women in the workplace. Coupled with this is a new focus on achieving gender equity at work which must include being menstruation and menopause friendly.
The recently updated Employment Rights Bill now demands all organisations with over 250 employees have a Gender Action Plan to address the gender health gap. Central to this is enabling people to recognise their own symptoms and be empowered to ask their employer for help and reasonable adjustments to enable them to be their best at work.
Breaking the menstruation taboo
We must break the taboo attached to talking about periods and menstrual health conditions to facilitate open, helpful conversations. Replacing the stigma with knowledge and understanding in the workplace will promote gender equity and ensure female colleagues feel supported and valued at work.
Knowledge is power, for
both employer and employee.
Experience tells me that employers and line managers both want and welcome training on how to support their employees. Combining such training with wider awareness of menstrual health symptoms and support solutions across the entire workplace is key to changing people’s attitudes and creating a culture where gender-specific issues are understood, respected and managed.
Knowledge is power
The Employment Rights Bill asks for a Gender Action Plan, and we know this simply isn’t possible without being menstruation and menopause friendly. Yet, this approach shouldn’t just be for larger organisations — every employer needs to address this. After all, who would want to work for an organisation that doesn’t take the wellbeing of their colleagues seriously?
Knowledge is power, for both employer and employee. Often, we hear that people don’t want to talk about their symptoms as they fear what their boss will say. We also hear from employers who don’t know how to have that all-important conversation as they fear not knowing what to say. It’s time to break this vicious circle and accelerate action by educating people on menstrual health symptoms; training managers on what to look for and how to help; and raising awareness within workplaces so that talking about menstrual health is no longer taboo.
