'Menopause awareness' in the workplace?

[WinterDeWinter]

Hello - I'd really like to see what people thought of this. I'm in a medium-sized third sector organisation and I've been asked to oversee a project to increase 'menopause support and awareness' beginning with a consultation. I'm feeling a bit stumped/resistant and I'm not quite sure why.

If I'm honest I'm not completely convinced that this will be more than a box-ticking / PR exercise, and I'm really unwilling to be the box ticker!

I also worry that it could backfire and that while the (higher than usual number of) 40s/50s women in the organisation would appreciate meaningful accommodations, not all will appreciate the spotlight being on them and some might even find it actively intrusive and unpleasant.

For example, we also employ a higher than average number of young-ish men - would the 'awareness training' be compulsory for all the young men and if so how would it feel to be a menopausal woman in the room?!

I am probably overthinking but I thought I would ask if anyone had experience of anything menopause-related in the workplace and if so, what has worked/not worked? If not, what measures would you want me to make sure went out for consultation if I was your colleague? How would you want this to be approached? It feels fraught with danger!

It's and issue between HR and line management, so they can offer a bit of flexibility if needed and some adaptions to your working environment.
I don't see why all my colleagues need a detailed account of the menopause, if you phone in sick with ' the menopause' what are your colleagues going to do , have a whip round and buy you something to help with vaginal dryness.
I am a aware its a spectrum and some women really struggle with it, but its the same with periods and pregnancy. Its a step backwards for women in the workplace. Women of childbearing age face discrimination when looking for work, now your adding menopausal as another reason not to employ.

I did exactly that! I was on my knees with perimenopause and told my young, male manager. He couldn’t have responded better, and I was so glad I spoke to him.

Sorry, that was meant to be in response to @LaraLei suggestion that no one would speak to a young male manager about their symptoms.

Christ, it’s not just about hot flushes and “getting a fan”. I’ve been crippled by peri for the last five years, and the only symptom I seem to have not got is hot flushes!

i was performance managed out of my previous role at my previous employer due to a female CEO who didn’t suffer from the symptoms of peri and thought I was making a fuss about nothing. We didn’t have a menopause policy as we didn’t have an older workforce. That woman’s bullying, nit picking and gas lighting put me on anti depressants, had me suicidal, and I lost a really lovely job. I was always someone who could fight her own corner but peri mixed up my fight/flight/freeze mechanisms and I ended up like a rabbit in the headlights.

I’m now in a new job which had a staff consultation to draft out its menopause policy. It had a menopause week on the intranet with a Q&A. Women who were peri and happy to talk about it ran discussions for staff - people of all ages attended. Men were particularly interested - some recalled their mums struggles, some asked questions because their wives were starting peri and they wanted to be better informed, and some asked because their team had a lot of 40+ women in it and they wanted to get things right. It meant that when I’d had a particularly pressured and stressful week, my line manager’s exec director rang me on the Friday afternoon and told me to start later on the Monday.

It’s normalised the whole topic and made people realise it’s not one symptom - it’s not just hot flushes, or heavy periods. I and a lot of my colleagues in the same boat are now happy and more relaxed at work because we know we know we’re not going to be put under review because we can’t prioritise the same way, or because we keep forgetting things, or because we have to go out of a four-hour meeting every hour to change a tampon. it’s been such a good thing for our place.

I'm 44 and really don't want this to be yet another reason why my work isn't valued. It's all done with the best intentions, but it risks undermining women over 50.

And more. I’m 46 and I think I’m peri, not that I’d shout about it.

im entitled to certain adjustments as I’ve had anxiety and depression for 25+ years. But things were different back then. It was definitely something you hid from your employer and I never disclose it except to immediately family, best friend and a couple of boyfriends. I don’t want to be seen as someone who needs adjustments, even if I do have to take a boatload of pills to seem normal.

women will be seen as even more weak if the problem is seen as babies, childcare, peri then full menopause. It’s just another excuse to see us as less efficient than men. I am child free and at least I’ve been able to write that in applications as I know it’s good info to share. But I can’t hide my age and I can see this turning into another group of women that firms won’t want to hire.

Definitely beneficial!

My adult son really surprised me recently by telling me there'd been some Menopause Awareness training recently at his place of work (a uni). He said one of his male colleagues was asking why they were doing it and apparently my son (vague, in his own world most of the time) told him a bit about what the effects of menopause can be and that all women will go through it to some degree. I had no idea he was actively listening when I'd briefly mentioned my experiences here and there (definitely nothing graphic). I was really touched by his matter of fact commentary about it and his evident sympathy!

Agree with all of the above.

My periods, my pregnancy, my menopause, my mental health are all my business. I do not want to engage in any awareness bollocks or be part of any work place initiative that allows my employer to pay lip service to whatever the latest "right on'' topic of the week is. Pay me for the work that I do and leave me alone. I don't want to speak to your Menopause Champion or engage with your overpaid and under qualified Wellness Team.

*Gintronic

100% agree with your whole post* 👍🏻

I'm of the 'hell yes' let's discuss / raise awareness camp.

A survey of the current situation in your workforce would be a good start OP so you know where to focus your efforts.

Are you currently experiencing symptoms
Rate your understanding of symptoms
Could you talk to your manager about it
Would you feel comfortable talking to colleagues
Do you feel there is adequate support around working conditions
Support around flexible working

Etc etc

I'm post menopausal

Frankly I'd have preferred everyone got on and did a bit more work than attend box ticking mandatory training of this sort.

Would've helped my stress levels far more.

DH is in charge of this at his work - well, there is a committee/group of them but he is the one with the budget. For them it's as much about making simple accommodations for women such as having a stock of fans in a cupboard which they can just go and take if they need to without asking, an putting up posters reminding staff of the counselling and healthcare services which the company already offers.

We really DO need to raise awareness of menopause as general understanding about it is bloody awful. I had no idea that the myriad of symptoms I was experiencing was menopause related. Hot flushes yes, that's the classic one, but the insomnia, anxiety, lack of confidence, aching joints etc etc etc?

I really hate this shut up and just get on with it attitude.

@KassandraOfSparta your husband is in charge of a committee, with a budget, for providing information and fans to menopausal women?

Are these women unable to access information and electrical items themselves?!

I'd imagine there's more to it than that but he is the budget-holder. People are not allowed to bring their own electricals into the workplace, no. Because of PAT testing and lots of other safety reasons. So the company buys them for them. It's more of a "tell us what you need and we'll provide it" thing.

They are a good employer and want to be supportive to all their staff.

I am late forties and this fills me with horror. I work at a male dominated company and most of the men are in their 30s. I honestly would hate to be even be asked about the menopause is a work setting and think it's completely irrelevant to my job. Once I start coming across as 'old' to these people it would be the beginning of the end. If I was suffering very badly from symptoms I'd take a sick day as normal. This honestly makes me cringe. I don't want or need any accomodations in my office job for menopause. Might be different in a more physical Jon I suppose. But for me all this menopause awareness stuff at work is a firm NO.

My workplace does this and it’s really well received, however it’s done in a non-gratuitous way, offering support if you need it, to women, managers and family members, not just stigmatising all women of a certain age through enforced training.

I think the key bit for me is removing the stigma to talking about it (if you need/want to) and knowing support is there if/when you need it, esp with things like the impact of brain fog on work etc. I know at least one colleague as well who has reached out for guidance on how best to support his wife. My workplace is predominantly male, and I see anything that raises awareness of womens experiences great- and if that helps managers who have a staff member suffering with brain fog etc, and make those reasonable adjustments to support them then that awareness can only be a good thing. Most of my male colleagues when asked didn’t know anything about menopause and the impact the symptoms can have on some women, which is quite shocking, so I find it encouraging to find it, alongside other health conditions, being talked about openly in the workplace.

The problem is we've spent 50 years showing men we can do things and this just plays into stereotypes about women being incapable due to their hormones. If you start saying we need reasonable adjustments or it is OK to not do your job properly employer's will obviously start to avoid hiring. It is a backwards step!

My company has a course you can go on if you like, my colleague and I are going to attend as both peri. However we are experiencing it very differently, so doing a course for everyone to say women of certain age may or may not experience this isn't helpful imo.

I would welcome this. I think that bottling it up and pretending we are

I do think that awareness in wider society is lacking - there are still women who deny that menopause is anything but hot flushes just because they didn't have symptoms (or because they haven't had them yet... one of my friends had a hysterectomy leaving her overies and had no menopause symptoms until she was nearly 60, then got hit by the brain fog, insomnia and anxiety and secretly thought she had early onset dementia until luckily her gynecologist - we're not UK and smears etc. are done at the gynecologist - picked up that she was going through menopause).

Many women have fairly easy periods - others actually pass regularly and have such severe flooding and cramps they feel iller and less able to work or attend school/ college than with any "ordinary" bug most people take a few days off with (a friend of mine had this every month in her early teens). Other "symptoms" of puberty (things as simple as acne) obviously vary hugely between individuals. It's unsurprising that women also have widely different experiences of menopause.

I'm not sure it's a workplace issue so much as a societal one. I agree management should be aware that menopause can cause insomnia and insomnia can itself have knock on consequences. I always think hot flushes are an almost deliberate red herring because they're an easy thing to ridicule.

Giving one menopausal woman massive "reasonable adjustment" at the expense of other menopausal women really backfired in my previous team though! Management need to avoid being purely reactive (thinking they're great for being so understanding) without considering the team as a whole and who's taking the strain for one individual when that individual is a squeeky wheel rather than genuinely having a unique issue.

I would welcome this. I think that bottling it up and pretending it doesn't happen, just so we don't look 'weak' in front of men is a step backwards.

It is a tricky one.

Because I think that older women already face enough discrimination at work that we don't want colleagues and employers to see us all as automatically needing extra support simply because of our age.

Also every woman will go through menopause differently.

I personally would not want any of this. I discussed any issues I had with healthcare professionals, I don't want to randomly discuss it in my workplace.

I can see the benefit of line managers being aware that someone might need some adjustments or time off if they are particularly struggling but again it is about the needs of the individual.

Very conflicted about this. We have a similar initiative at my workplace.

In theory, I’m all for it. Awareness, support etc. But as with most things, if you have a supportive line manager then you will get these things anyway.
Its the unsupportive ones that need to be targeted. And unfortunately, for them, this is just another reason women shouldn’t be in senior roles. The workplace is still appallingly sexist, not the same as the 70s, but covertly. The vast majority of our senior staff are still white men.

If you speak up or show weakness then you are written off (as a women). But praised as brave if you’re a man (see also: childcare, mental health etc)

I'm a bit shocked at some of these responses. Clearly women who haven't suffered badly just don't get it. My male colleagues are more supportive than most of the women posting here.
Try having peri menopausal menorrhagia and regularly flooding through at work. Then try working in an operating theatre you can't leave whilst flooding! Or being unable to take HRT, as many of us can't, and going to work on 2 hours sleep.
It absolutely does affect many of us in the workplace. I for one am glad to have understanding colleagues.

We might have fought for equality but our biology will always be against us there whether we're of childbearing age or menopausal. You can't silence that into not existing by not talking about it. Women in their 40's and 50's usually have much more to bring to the table in terms of professional and life experience though and if an employer can't see that I wouldn't want to work for them anyway.

I've no idea how to best implement awareness in your workplace OP but given the responses here I would think online might be best.

Well said.