{"id":23962,"date":"2023-09-15T15:15:49","date_gmt":"2023-09-15T14:15:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ounews.co\/?p=23962"},"modified":"2023-09-15T15:15:49","modified_gmt":"2023-09-15T14:15:49","slug":"how-to-design-menopause-leave-policies-that-support-women-in-the-workplace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/business-law\/how-to-design-menopause-leave-policies-that-support-women-in-the-workplace\/","title":{"rendered":"How to design menopause leave policies that really support women in the workplace"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jo Brewis, Professor of People and Organisations at The Open University<\/a>\u00a0writes for\u00a0The Conversation<\/a> about how to design menopause leave policies that really support women in the workplace.<\/p>\n

More than 15 million women<\/a> are in employment in the UK right now, which means menopause is undoubtedly a workplace issue<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And while there has been enormous progress made in the UK at workplace level<\/a> in this area, many women still experience a lack of support when trying to manage symptoms such as fatigue, hot flushes, loss of focus and concentration, anxiety and worry and insomnia at work.<\/p>\n

We have already written about the government\u2019s woeful response<\/a> to the Women and Equalities Committee\u2019s (WEC) hard-hitting and wide-ranging 2022 report and recommendations<\/a> on menopause in the workplace.<\/p>\n

Among these recommendations, the WEC said the government should pilot a menopause leave policy with a large public sector employer that has a strong public profile. After 12 months, the government could then evaluate the scheme and propose how to roll it out to other organisations.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the government rejected this recommendation<\/a>. Women and Equalities Minister Kemi Badenoch has also said that a government-backed menopause leave policy pilot<\/a> would be too expensive. The government would prefer to provide information on best practices and encourage employers to implement workplace menopause policies and other forms of support, such as flexible working.<\/p>\n

But such an approach only individualises responsibility. It makes employer action voluntary and probably also means that it will fall to menopausal women to ensure they have the support they need at work.<\/p>\n

It is possible to design menopause leave that is both workable and effective, however. This would involve including menopause as a reason for taking sick leave and ensuring it is classified by HR as an ongoing health issue on this basis.<\/p>\n

Redesigning policies around women\u2019s needs<\/h2>\n

Sally King, founder of information hub Menstrual Matters, has already pointed out some of the downsides<\/a> of what might look like a similar initiative \u2013 menstrual leave. She argues that this kind of approach \u201cdoes not make it easier to manage your period at work because your employer doesn\u2019t have to change a thing. Instead you are encouraged to stay away from the workplace\u201d.<\/p>\n

King also suggests menstrual leave may actually reinforce stigma around periods because it corrals them \u2013 and those who experience them \u2013 to the private realm of the home. The same could be said for menopause leave.<\/p>\n

However, our experience<\/a> working with employers that want to be recognised as \u201cmenopause friendly\u201d shows that two small adjustments to existing workplace absence policies could make a huge difference to menopause-related \u2013 and indeed menstruation-related \u2013 absence.<\/p>\n

The first and perhaps simplest adjustment is to include problematic menopause symptoms<\/a> as a specific reason for absence.<\/p>\n

Best estimates suggest 53.5% of cisgender women<\/a> experience such symptoms. So this will help to destigmatise using them as a valid explanation for staying away from work. And, as King also points out, it will address \u201cpresenteeism\u201d, which is when employees feel like they should still work even if feeling unwell.<\/p>\n

Redefining how we think about absences<\/h2>\n

The second adjustment involves these symptoms being explicitly labelled as the result of a persistent health issue. This is because menopause symptoms are often erratic as well as short term \u2013 to borrow a phrase from Open University PhD student Vickie Williams\u2019 research<\/a>, they are \u201cregularly irregular\u201d.<\/p>\n

Absences related to menopause are likewise usually erratic and short term, perhaps lasting only a day or two at most, but can be fairly frequent. This is often seen in a more negative light by employers, even compared to longer periods of absence, when an employer uses a common tool to measure and compare employee absences, known as the Bradford Factor<\/a>. It supposes shorter but more frequent absences are in fact more disruptive at work than long-term sickness.<\/p>\n

Bradford Factor measurements take the number of absences in a year and multiply these by the same number. The product is then multiplied by the total days of absence in the same year. As an example, compare two hypothetical employees\u2019 absences for the same year using Bradford Factor scoring.<\/p>\n