There are still many stigmas that make work quietly challenging for many folks, particularly women or members of other marginalized groups: motherhood, mental illness, and more. People are expected to always be professional, whatever that exactly means: a vague zone of perfection in which one behaves with perfect equanimity and effectiveness at all times. While certainly it’s admirable and pleasant to work with people who are good workers, who are on time, productive, and civil, people have lives both inside and outside of work and are subject to the stressors inherent to juggling multiple roles. The AppleTV series Severance depicts a gothic extreme in which the ideal worker actually has no permitted identity outside of the workplace; their home lives must be artificially split with a specially implanted mental barrier that blocks those memories, so that those outside lives can never interfere with work productivity and behavior. Of course, madness and mayhem ensue from the imposition of such a radical device, showing that it is even an inhumane expectation to think this boundary can be fully enacted.
Nonetheless, the professional ideal remains of the calm, unflappable employee who never misses a day of work, never questions or challenges their workload, and just gets it done. What gets in the way of this ideal are so many realistic aspects of humanity that we want to sweep under the rug. Balancing and juggling so many life stressors that lead us to spend long hours at work for the money in the first place can become an impossible task for so many. Everything from the cost of living (and then needing longer, more-exhausting commutes to live in an affordable place), raising families (we know how demanding children are), various repairs and tasks, and above all, our own health and physical limitations can get in the way of meeting this perfect-employee ideal, even beyond the sometimes unrealistic expectations and demands of the job itself.
The United States and several Asian countries seem particularly indifferent to the demands of this work-life balance in terms of their workplace expectations and policies in many ways. Until recently, sick and parental leave were all but almost absent, and even when available remain largely unpaid at most private workplaces.
Gradually inroads are being made toward humane accommodations of people’s situations at work. Breastfeeding time and stations are becoming more commonplace. The Covid pandemic, at least on a temporary basis, allowed for more lenient sick leave time to avoid spreading germs (although most of these accommodations have now fallen to the wayside, while the virus continues to spread). Major illnesses and childbirth are protected by the Family Medical Leave Act. Some workplaces include childcare facilities on the premises. But there is still a generally minimalist attitude toward these accommodations, treating them as a barebones necessity. Other more progressive policies overseas, like paid spa vacations and days off for periods for those who menstruate, seem to be mocked as excessive indulgences here, for people who need to suck it up.
The issue of menstrual periods is one that has been highlighted more recently overseas in places like Spain, Taiwan, and Zambia, but remains largely ignored here and brushed under the rug. A few recent studies have noted that dysmenorrhea, aka period pain, is very common—experienced by as much as a third of women, and severe in 8 to 10%–and a significant cause of work absence and issues with productivity in women of reproductive age or others who menstruate. Some companies have subsequently floated the idea of menstrual leave for employees affected by these issues, which has been an important acknowledgment of this previously minimized concern. However, further dialogue has been hampered by embarrassment, stigma, and sexism. (This dilemma may be reflected in Asian countries offering the menstrual leave policy despite otherwise being notorious for workaholism, perhaps more due to latent misogyny than enlightened compassion.)
Already, women face numerous barriers in being perceived as equally capable employees at work (with a concomitant pay gap relative to their male peers). The burden and expectations of motherhood roles fall more often on women, and the pressure to juggle responsibilities with work, leading to struggles with time management and productivity (and subsequent career advancement). There are also ongoing sexist perceptions that women cannot be effective leaders, whether due to unfair biases regarding idealized feminine personalities and behavior (i.e., double standards that women should always ‘play nice’ but then in turn cannot be respected as authority figures), or the longstanding perception that women are ‘moody,’ which the stigma around menstrual periods may appear to justify. If women are forced to admit that periods can be debilitating enough to require special accommodations, women may also have to deal with the resulting perception that they are less capable, more emotionally unstable, physically weak, etc.
Yet it is unfair to also pretend that dysmenorrhea and related issues don’t exist. People should try to understand that menstrual problems can cause genuine suffering, instead of casting blame upon those who have them. Too often, uncomfortable personal issues (particularly around anything related to sex or childbirth) are avoided at the cost of appropriate medical attention, needless shaming, and lack of compassion. These physical realities exist, whether we ignore and hide them or not; refusing to deal with them can lead to greater fallout at times. For decades, people have been shamed into avoiding discussions about birth control, pap smears, sex education, and more…with the consequences of unintended pregnancies, STDs, cancer, and more. Normalizing these issues instead of hushing them up promotes a more realistic and fair understanding of how to address them, and to prevent worse consequences such as mental health problems, abuse, and more.
A pragmatic, nonjudgmental approach to such policies seems like a good start. Obviously sick leave remains an ongoing way for people to take necessary time off for any illnesses and needs to be more widely accepted in workplaces as a standard benefit. Currently private-sector sick leave is pathetically small…often as little as 2 to 4 days a year, while federal government jobs permit 4 hours of sick leave per pay period to accumulate indefinitely (i.e., up to 13 days a year). Given that we know now how viral illnesses like COVID transmit, allowing people to quarantine and recover fully when necessary at home should be a given to promote the health and productivity of workforces; sadly, it still isn’t. Even with sick leave, it feels somewhat refreshing to have official policies out there in the public eye acknowledging how difficult menstrual symptoms can be, and to standardize acceptance of their difficulties (while trying, with future frank discussions, to reduce the possible associated negative judgment surrounding it as well).
Overall, workplaces need to accommodate and acknowledge human frailty and permit and accept understandable situations in which our conditions and situations affect our work personae. It is one thing if someone performs poorly at work volitionally or simply from a bad work ethic or attitude; it is another if they are just trying to do their best, whatever curveballs life throws their way, and there are so many to cope with nowadays.
Menstrual Leave: Sexist or Humane?
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20.11.2023
There are still many stigmas that make work quietly challenging for many folks, particularly women or members of other marginalized groups: motherhood, mental illness, and more. People are expected to always be professional, whatever that exactly means: a vague zone of perfection in which one behaves with perfect equanimity and effectiveness at all times. While certainly it’s admirable and pleasant to work with people who are good workers, who are on time, productive, and civil, people have lives both inside and outside of work and are subject to the stressors inherent to juggling multiple roles. The AppleTV series Severance depicts a gothic extreme in which the ideal worker actually has no permitted identity outside of the workplace; their home lives must be artificially split with a specially implanted mental barrier that blocks those memories, so that those outside lives can never interfere with work productivity and behavior. Of course, madness and mayhem ensue from the imposition of such a radical device, showing that it is even an inhumane expectation to think this boundary can be fully enacted.
Nonetheless, the professional ideal remains of the calm, unflappable employee who never misses a day of work, never questions or challenges their workload, and just gets it done. What gets in the way of this ideal are so many realistic aspects of humanity that we want to sweep under the rug. Balancing and juggling so many life stressors that lead us to spend long hours at work for the money in the first place can become an impossible task for so many. Everything from the cost of living (and then needing longer, more-exhausting commutes to live in an affordable place), raising families (we know how demanding children are), various repairs and tasks, and above all, our own health and physical limitations can get in the way of meeting this perfect-employee........
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