PMS AT WORK — And Why It Matters

I am proud to be a woman, and I love being a woman — well, for the most part, haha!

Let me start by saying?this article is by no means an attack on men. And I don't think toxic masculinity is the root of all evil. Though, some men can be very toxic...just like women!

So now that we have that out of the way let me go on and say what I really think.

You can laugh all you want or not even believe me, but many men still don't know precisely what PMS is. No joke! And I'm talking about grown a$$ men here, not little boys.

It was a shocking revelation for me when PMS was mentioned a lot of men thought that just meant you were ON your period. Ah, the moments I was left without a word. And trust me, that's hard to achieve.

And then I'd say P in PMS stands for PREmenstrual…and explain in short terms what it actually is. As for them, it just meant "that time of the month when your partner goes a little bit extra cuckoo, and you have to walk on eggshells around her." Ugh, if only they knew…

My First Pms Work-related Issue

I probably wouldn't ever think about my PMS being an issue for anyone other than myself (and my partner, haha) until something happened at one of my previous jobs.

I was a new employee, and I had a boss (another woman) who, after about my second PMS, came to me very nicely, gave me a badge that said?I need love, and told me, "Please wear this when you're PMS-ing so you don't get fired."

We both laughed, and it was very nice of her to approach me calmly, friendly about it. She wasn't condescending at all, and I'm thankful to her for handling it like a good boss.

Little did I know at the time that I actually suffer from PMDD (Premenstrual dysphoric disorder), but that's an article on its own. So it was even harder for me to handle all my symptoms every month as my then job was working with patrons. Some would irritate the berserk out of me, but I was supposed to keep my cool.

Needless to say, I was grateful that I worked in an all-women environment at the time. I never got any backlash for my mood swings or outbursts during my PMDD. That, however, wasn't the case at my other jobs, especially when I had male bosses.

Not Another Toxic-Masculinity Attack

Again, I really don't want this article to be about bashing men. But it is a fact most men aren't compassionate about this issue. It's primarily due to a lack of understanding and personal experience rather than malice.

Heck, just watch a few videos of men being attached to those electricity shockers that simulate PMS cramps, and you'll understand just how little they know about the pain and what it's like. And that's just the cramps. There are soo many other symptoms as well.

So I don't blame men. I want them to at least try to understand and help us out because real men acknowledge (and appreciate!) our differences.

How, you ask? Start by supporting the idea of menstruating women getting some time off from work or at least being given more flexibility around arriving/leaving work.

That's not going to make you a Beta male. But it'll score you points with us for sure. Just think of how much your wife, sister, daughter, mother, aunt, or pretty much any woman in your life would be grateful for this.

Not to mention good old?quid pro quo?from your work colleagues when you'll need a favor.?

What researches showed

I recently read an interesting article in the?Washington Post?about?research published in 2019, where it was found that "45 percent of the 600 people surveyed would support menstrual leave in the United States, and an additional 16.3 percent would if it met certain conditions — for example if it was unpaid and if the menstruation symptoms required medical intervention".

Now, you may think,?Well, that's something!?But it's not enough.

Menstrual leave isn't common in most countries, but it exists around the globe, including Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Indonesia, and Zambia.

In May this year, the?Spanish cabinet approved menstrual leave law?— the first of its kind in Europe, allowing women with severe pain to stay home three days per month. That's something more countries should take note of.

Women who menstruate should be allowed some kind of leave from work. Some women don't menstruate anymore for various reasons (pregnant, menopausal women, using birth control, etc.).

But it is essential not to take advantage of this. So let's not give the devil a foothold on this one but focus on how it can play for our benefit instead of against us.

Because in the long run, it would be more beneficial for the whole work environment to manage a few days without less productive coworkers and even potentially "destructive" ones (I'm raising my hand here first).?

The Taboo of PMS

Talking about your period-related problems is often considered a taboo and stigmatized health topic in the work environment.

A?UK research from 2021?"has primarily focused on the relationship between premenstrual symptom severity and the rates of absenteeism, job performance, and productivity."

Suppose we look at the data from that research and know that 90% of women reported they had experienced at least one premenstrual symptom in the last four weeks. In that case, we can't simply ignore it.

Breast tenderness, headaches, joint/muscle pain, bloating, weight gain, fatigue/lack of energy, anger, or irritability are some of them, and they lasted, on average, around five days and ranged between 1–14 days.

So obviously, work performance was being affected.?

We can also read in the study that overall levels of disclosure to line managers about premenstrual symptoms were very low (8.9%,?n?= 11). As we further read, "Those who decided not to disclose revealed it was due to perceiving that premenstrual symptoms would not be seen as a valid reason for needing absence, it would be discriminated, and or cause embarrassment. This was particularly in relation to male line managers but not always as some female managers were also regarded as unapproachable or unsupportive."

So what women do instead is give another health reason for their absence. And I can't even start expressing my disappointment and anger about it because?we shouldn't be made to feel guilty or penalized?over something that's not even a matter of personal choice, viewpoint, ideology, or controllable to much of its extent!?

Conclusion

And so, lately, it seems we live in a world where everyone can get triggered literally by anything (rolling my eyes so hard I can see my brain). Employers need to oblige someone's?feelings?and beliefs on numerous things, and all other kinds of self-identification (like furries for example — no judgment, just saying).

Shouldn't we then do the same for?women, who make up more than half of the world's population and a large chunk of the world's workforce??

I know it may seem unfair to some folks that menstruating women would have time off. Just like smoking breaks may seem unfair to others. Or any other instance you can think of when it comes to being allowed time off work when everyone else is busting their ding-dongs.

It's a complex issue, for sure, to even determine parameters under which those women would be granted some time off from work. Menstrual leave policies differ from sick leave and shouldn't create illegal discrimination.

Some of the things to be taken into consideration would include and also present challenges: exactly how much time off; is it paid or not; should it be granted by default for all women in a particular workforce, or should women need to prove they are menstruating (and how); would other people in that workforce also be granted equivalent time off for something else; what if the menstruating woman is also a smoker and gets a lot of cigar breaks as well; etc.

As you can see, determining how to implement this policy is everything but easy. But should we just dismiss it because of it? NO.

Instead, we should roll up our sleeves and find a way. Clearly, some countries already have. Let's follow their example.

As I've said before, we make up a large portion of almost all the workforce in the world.?And we are worth it!

I would like to know if you agree and disagree with this, and to hear your proposals on how we can, as a society, tackle this ever-existing problem.