Menopause, workplace adjustments

[TSSDNCOP]

I am writing an essay for a course I am doing. The topic I have chosen is menopause, specifically assessing the effects on our organisation (public) and what reasonable adjustments could be made to support women better.

I have loads of research material and I'm pleased with progress but what I can't find is examples of where workplaces have implemented facilities to support women.

Can any of you help by describing ways your organisation public or private has adapted to support women eg showers, laundry bags, proximity to toilets, stocking toilets, providing an area for keeping changes of clothes etc, rest spaces, OH, clued up managers/HR. There must be some supportive organisations out there by now!!

Also does your organisation count a menopause related absence differently to say, a cold, and more like a pregnancy related absence?

Thank you for your insights

In honesty, I wrote it initially because of a wellness initiative we were doing. We are a well-being award winner and one of the criteria to retain this was a range of policies being in place. I don't think I'd ever heard menopause mentioned at work so it was an interesting one to develop.

Also, a conversation with one of our female NEDs where she said how useful it had been in her own organisation prompted thought.

We're currently supporting an employee who is really struggling. My newly increased awareness helped me spot some signs and we've gently encouraged her to see her GP so they can take it from here.

We didn't really need a policy to tell us how to support her but the fact it exists does make it easier to have conversations, so for that purpose alone, I'm glad of it.

I'm a lawyer. The Equal Treatment Bench Book has just been updated to include menopause for the first time (p171) www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Equal-Treatment-Bench-Book-February-2021-1.pdf

It's encouraging that it is in there, but it has no force for solicitors' firms or barristers' chambers, and is written in sympathy to a witness not an advocate. So as an example I think I'd rate it as "a good start."

We had nothing. Too busy concentrating on trans, general wellbeing, bame.

@NewIdeasToday

How will it help women’s equality at work in the long run if there are campaigns for special adjustments and sick leave that isn’t counted? It’s likely to inhibit The careers of middle aged women rather than help them.

This in spades ^

We can't have it all ways; we can't expect equality, to be taken seriously in the workplace and to compete with men, but then say "Oh, women of a certain age (a pretty broad range, at that) need special dispensations, leave without notice, showers and other special, expensive or time consuming measures"
Who the heck would hire a middle-aged woman then? As a perimenopausal woman myself who's hoping to return to the workplace, it's quite scary that my chances could sabotaged by campaigners who may convince potential employers that I may be hot, emotional, sweaty and useless, and prone to days off. I'm very much not.

Certainly, natural fibre uniforms for everyone would be an improvement, and some control over temperature, but that's quite universal.
The PP who said that her employer was sensitive to ALL employees' needs has it right: a bit of understanding for everyone goes a long way; not just menopausal women.

"you're going through menopause you're not sick (the later version of you're pregnant not sick)."
This is TRUE though: menopause is not an illness.

Think about this though: if reasonable adjustments and openness and tolerance exist then they become accepted as norm. It's only when they don't there is lack of equality. Reasonable adjustments can take many fiorns openness and support for instance.

I suffer from a number of gynae issues. And in my 20s and 30s,would frequently, have to have my period day off work (luckily wasn't a 28 day cycle!) It was really hard going as it clocked up my absence record, but I could genuinely do nothing about as I was already on treatment and at that point this was the best I could be.

I technically at that point could have made a claim under DDA. But as the condition itself is not readily viewed in that light I'm not sure I'd have gained anything from my local authority employer iykwim.

I think that until all such conditions are seen in the light that they are a choice, then there is no equality. My catching a cold due to no underlying conditions is imo totally different to suffering from a condition and these should all be treated and recorded differently.

Now as I wfh, most of the time when this is an issue (I'm mid 40s) I can manage to get through as haven't got to walk anywhere, get up etc. So my attendance is hugely improved. But I still have episodes where its not that way and do then require time off. Luckily I work for a very inclusive organisation who have never had an issue as see the bigger picture here and that they gain more from reasonable adjustments than they do from applying archaic Bradford absence scales!

Nothing specific, though OP you ought to consider the impact of greater working from home during the pandemic and beyond. Women feeling a bit under par on a given day and able to work from home instead of having a day off sick or struggling in.

@carlywurly

We have a menopause policy, which I wrote, but to be honest, increasing awareness and making it ok to have open conversations is at the heart of it. Everyone is different and will have differing needs so simply plonking a fan at every bank of desks was never going to be the answer.

What is probably the answer for us is really being flexible about working patterns, making it much easier to request emergency paid leave and addressing well-being frequently and holistically across the business.

Our latest diversity stats show we have an issue in retaining women aged over 55 in the business so it's one of my key focus points at the moment. There are often a lot of life events going on for women at around that age, so it's a challenge to know what to tackle first.

I like this approach. I worked for a big corporate when I went through menopause, with no policy in place. I had a younger, male manager who I found it very embarrassing to discuss it with, but he was very kind when I did, and educated himself.

I ended up with informal adjustments in terms of flexibility of hours and working from home when I needed it, as my anxiety driven menopausal insomnia was excruciating. When it came to it, I rarely used the adjustment available to me, as just knowing that it was in place made everything more bearable.

Fans, access to toilets...wouldn't have needed any of that. Menopausal symptoms are so individual.

Is any form of illness a choice? If anything, pregnancy illness is the one that IS a choice.

My workplace have had regular webinars on managing the menopause, they’ve been run by Menopause Matters and have been excellent. The only trouble is, it’s only impacted women who attend. There have been broader comms too so they are trying to open up the conversation and improve awareness. Each week a different topic is discussed and Q&As held, with short stretching session added in too.

I don’t want or need any special places or facilities. My worst symptoms are inability to cope (with things I used to breeze through), irrational rage and inability to control my temperature. HRT has helped a lot, but my temperature is still temperamental!

@TSSDNCOP

It's a debate. Pregnancy related absence is not counted in the same way as absence through sickness. Menopause symptoms if they're experienced are not a choice. There are research papers that indicate woman leave their jobs during menopause. Do we want people leaving jobs because of a biological inevitability?

Menopause symptoms if they're experienced are not a choice.

Nor is cancer, or flu, or many other things

Pregnancy is definitely a choice (most cases, without coercion obviously)

Menopause is something that women go through, some are affected, some breeze through

I work for a national commercial company and we have a large number of roles which are field and home based at 72 hours worked flexibly over a month, which are 70% filled by the peri/menopausal demographic. I doubt they were created consciously but it works so well for this stage of life, especially when as others have pointed out, you're in the sandwich between youngish children and oldish parents.

I was losing one week a month to hormonal migraine and increasingly difficult to manage periods in my old 40+ hours a week job and it was becoming unsustainable. I do worry about the impact on my pension and later career from working fewer hours and at a lower grade, but health had to come first.

One of the things that comes up a lot in my VA support group is around being sat down a lot. Office based jobs where ppl are sat down for hours on end could be at best very uncomfortable and st worst downright agony with severe VA

Being encouraged to use stand up desks and ring cushions as well as taking regular breaks away from being sat down can really help as well

A few years ago, I listened to a useful session run by my union on menopause in the workplace; they also referred to the TUC guidelines for a menopause policy. I asked HR if we had a menopause policy. I might as well have asked how I deal with having grown a second head, and got back a very anodyne response about, it's not needed, as it's covered by other policies. However, they did run a session on menopause last week - I was in another meeting, so will listen to the replay. So things may be changing.

It's a very techy, male- dominated workplace; I'm the only woman in my department. It is something I could talk to my male manager about if I needed (we talked about miscarriage last week, which has wife went through, whereas I've never been pregnant.) Previous manager, I don't think I could have spoken to about it. But I think it's important for them to think about this sort of thing, because being mostly men, it might not naturally be something they would think about. We already had a lot of flexible working, and the ability to work from home from before the pandemic, which all helps. I find heavy periods easier to deal with from home. I've so far had no other perimenopausal symptoms, still very regular at 49. But I know other women in the workplace have struggled.

I think being open to talking about it is important, and realising every woman can be affected very differently, from almost nothing, to very challenging, and adjusting accordingly. And the pandemic has at least proved we can still work effectively with more flexibility.

Thank you to everyone that's replied. I'm taking them all into account.