Periods at work

[ISaySteadyOn]

www.scarymommy.com/woman-fired-menstruating-files-lawsuit/?utm_source=FB

Sorry, posted too soon. I can't do links very well on my phone. But I thought this story was awful.

What is the story?

www.scarymommy.com/woman-fired-menstruating-files-lawsuit/?utm_source=FB for ease :)

Well done that woman for fighting on, and dear god what are her managers thinking - what are the courts thinking - of course it's discrimination!

And fighting back she is. After her initial appeal was denied — during which a District Court challenged her to find a “similarly situated male comparator,”

Reeeeediculous.

It is awful. Infuriating and very worrying.

"Alisha received a disciplinary notice informing her that “she would be fired if she ever soiled another chair from sudden onset menstrual flow."

What the fuck is wrong with America?

Omfg
"Failing to maintain appropriate standards of hygiene" ffs.
The world is going backwards. I bet her job has rules about how many breaks you can have too.

My last job had rules about breaks. We were allowed a 10 min one late morning and 10 min one in the afternoon (and obviously a proper lunch break too). I have very heavy periods but was threatened with disciplinary action if I needed the toilet outside of those 3 breaks. Meant I had no time to eat on my breaks too as they would have to be spent getting across the building for the toilet. Left the job after 3 months and am now somewhere much more laid back

Good god. How the hell is that legal. I wonder if men would have to bleed that much and suffer such humiliation before it being considered appropriate to call the Dr? The "criteria" seem awfully drastic surely 1 pad an hour for 2r hours would leave someone extremely anaemic/ill? Surely there's something that cab he done befire it's at that point?

Poor woman. It's ok to he a woman provided there is no evidence of being a woman?

Good lord Teddy7878. So here, is the flipside. They actively prevented you from ensuring you wouldn't leak!

What would happen if you did?

I had a customer facing role and needed cover for loo breaks. Fortunately, I had a team who were mostly women. But the onus was still on me, to buck the system and ask for favours.

I realise it's too random to be able to 'build in' specific breaks. Periods aren't that accommodating.

Nonetheless. Can you see the same attitude prevailing if someone has sudden, explosive diarrhoea?

It's one of things that shows how the world is built for men imo. I regularly have to go to 3/4 hours meetings. I have heavy periods. I've had to excuse myself to deal with leaks, because it's sudden people have assumed I've been upset/I'll etc.
It doesn't cross the mind of people arranging these events that 3/4 hours may be too long for a menstrusing woman.

Samenat school isn't it. Kids refused to he allowed out to the toilets assuming they are all piss takers.

When actually it can take a few months or years for periods to regulate themselves.

People shouldn't have to explain personal details to he allowed inhuman right to a bathroom break.

Especially when nothing is ever done about excessive smoke breaks

A human right

Stupid autocorrect

USA
''The law requires an employer to provide reasonable accommodation to an employee or job applicant with a disability, unless doing so would cause significant difficulty or expense for the employer ("undue hardship").''

www.eeoc.gov/laws/types/disability.cfm

UK
''It’s against the law for employers to discriminate against you because of a disability. The Equality Act 2010 protects you''

A disability is something that has a
'substantial and long-term adverse effect on the ability of an employee to carry out normal day to day activities.'
www.gov.uk/rights-disabled-person/employment

Women also have protection under the Equality Act on grounds of their sex.

I dont think being female, or having irregular or heavy periods is a disability. But the effects can be likened to one and I'd like to see someone fight this kind of thing (including being forced to wear high heels or lose your job) before we leave the EU.

I started my periods very young at 9 and I remember leaking all over the school seats all the time as the teachers were very strict about toilet breaks. It was traumatic at that age and I would get teased mercilessly by the other kids. Ended up having to get a doctors note insisting that I be allowed to go to the toilet outside of break times

Teddy7878

I'm not denying that there will be kids who may well use periods as a piss taking excuse. But I should imagine they are few and far between. Periods are not the sort of thing that young girls will invoke, willy-nilly. It's too embarrassing.

What I can't understand is the lack of knowledge and compassion around these things. Evidenced by the lengths you had to go to!

Girls (and women) are embarrassed. We shouldn't be. We just shouldn't.

It's a regular occurrence for most women for a massive proportion of their lives, particularly working lives.

People, mostly men, react negatively, so we keep it under wraps, so they don't have to deal with it, so when they do they react negatively.

It's a vicious circle.

Thanks, Spaghetti. I don't really have the eloquence of most of the women here but I thought this deserved attention.

I've worked with a couple of men who has horrendous IBS and everyone was very sympathetic towards them.

What has happened in the USA? They seem to absolutely hate women.

They really do. I'm from there and when you're in it, it can be hard to see but from the outside, wow.

I guess when the the Republican Party became so intertwined with extremist right wing Christianity this kind of shit was inevitable. Sigh.