We long for a world where we can all show up fully as ourselves, including at work. A world where there are policies that allow for menstrual rest for those in pain. Where menopause is honoured and supported. Where the creative powers of each cycle phase are acknowledged and celebrated.
(Our secret longing is to live in a world where the biggest boardroom and governmental decisions are left up to the member of the team who is currently menstruating - and therefore in touch with a divine knowing - or sat firmly in post-menopause power).
If you’re in employment you may be expected to show up at work and do your job in the same way every day of the month. Although some bosses and companies may be open to learning about how the cycle can enhance women’s skills and abilities, and be happy to support that.
Menstrual and Menopause Policies
Many years ago, Red School was invited to help to pioneer one first ‘Period Policies’ within a UK-based company that wanted to make cycle-awareness explicit in its workplace. It had extraordinary coverage in the media around the world, from Brazil to China! Since then we’ve seen more and more organisations initiating and embracing both menstrual and menopause policies. If you’d like to learn more about these kinds of policies and how to create workplaces which honour our cyclical needs, you can read more about how to become a cycle aware workplace here.
And you might also enjoy this Menstruality chat with the brilliant Dr Lara Owen: Menstruation and Menopause in the Workplace. Lara shares how the Covid pandemic, and the normalisation of working from home, ushered in the exciting new British Standards Institute Menstrual and Menopause workplace policy - a forty-page document with guidelines for employers and management for how to accommodate the menstrual cycle and menopause in the workplace. (We also love how she speaks about the power of ‘post-menopause zest’ at work).
Calling in Your Allies
If you laugh out loud at the thought of your workplace as ‘menstrual positive’, could you get just one or two allies at work? Let your personal cycle-awareness practice inform your working life, even if you do still have to rock up at work when you’d rather be at home menstruating in peace.
Menstruation At Work
When you menstruate, go more slowly, work more quietly, take all the pressure off yourself and just let yourself cruise in your own little menstrual bubble. No one need know or guess that you’re deep in your menstrual cave.
For one woman we met in a workshop had a very busy job managing a lot of people, failing to show up at work wasn’t an option; instead, she would imagine herself protected in a cave. On the outside everything looked ‘normal’ but on the inside she was holding a lovely tender intimacy with herself…
Susan’s Story: Creating her Personal Menstrual Policy
Susan has suffered from bad period pain, and she also has a demanding job. During a review of her work she told her boss, a man, that she would like to work in sync with her cycle and that this may mean taking it easy or staying at home when she menstruates (she’s a straight-talking woman). She also told him that she’d make sure her work commitments didn’t suffer, and compensate at other times in her cycle. He trusted her.
She organized her whole working rhythm around her cycle and let her colleagues know. In fact, she created a menstrual chart that she attached to her computer, to indicate her current day. In this way, anyone who wanted to could be ‘in the know’.
Susan’s personal menstrual policy has worked wonders. She seldom takes a menstrual day off now because her symptoms have improved so much. But just knowing she can, eases tension for her. Her colleagues know the best time to approach her and the best time to leave her alone. Some of them have even asked her to teach them about the cycle. And she feels that she’s much more productive at work.
Is you’d like to hear more stories about creating cycle-aware workplaces, you might enjoy these podcast episodes:
How to Channel your Cycle’s Superpowers in Work and Business (Claire Baker)
How we Run a Cycle Aware Business (Alexandra & Sjanie)
How to Grow an Intuitive, Cyclical Business (Sjanie & Sophie)
Join a cycle-aware community, creating a cycle-aware world… The topic of cycle-awareness at work is always a hot and central one amongst our Menstruality Leadership Programme participants, and we’re so excited because the doors are opening soon for our 2027 programme. If you’d like to explore the course, you can take a look here.
