The necessity for a leave of absence for family or medical reasons frequently relies on the demographics of the employee, including age, parental status, and whether they are single parents. Women are more likely than men to require time off from work for different reasons, such as to care for a new baby, another person who has a major health condition, or one’s own serious health condition (Price, 2021). As a large percentage of working women do not take time off when necessary, an increasing number of women continue to need family or medical leave. Menstrual leave is a type of leave when a woman takes paid or unpaid leave from work if she is menstruating, as this may include symptoms such as heavy bleeding, cramps, and fatigue.
Menstrual leave has been practiced for many years in several regions of the world. People are granted time off from work during their periods as per company policy. This leave is offered by the employer in addition to regular sick days. People are often only required to take unpaid leave when they are unable to work, such as when they are in excruciating pain or suffering (Levitt and Barnack-Tavlaris, 2020). Menstrual leave should be considered a priority in most companies due to its importance in developing healthy workplace relations.
Although there is little study on the subject, the introduction of temporary leave in the workplace can have a number of advantages. People who menstruate may feel more at ease addressing their health with employers and coworkers if we have open discussions about menstruation and its impacts. The key point is that menstrual leave can reduce the stigma associated with menstruation, enhance well-being, boost productivity at work, and promote customer loyalty (Levitt and Barnack-Tavlaris, 2020). Moreover, if the policy treats maternity leave as a component of regular sick leave, individuals who still do not feel comfortable publicly discussing their periods—for instance, non-binary or transgender people—have the choice of not declaring it (King, 2021). Additionally, some businesses that have implemented menstrual leave are discovering that even those who are not menstruating support the idea.
However, there are some potential drawbacks to the introduction of menstrual leave. The misconception that individuals are weak and unreasonable when they have their period may be perpetuated by regulations, which might have a negative impact on people’s career advancement, pay scales, and interpersonal interactions at work (Price, 2021). Additionally, if employers offer paid intermittent leave, employees are often exempt from disclosing their menstrual status and may claim the time as sick leave instead (Baird et al., 2021). Employees must notify their employer when taking special leave to run the possibility of being compelled to quit, which might result in more discrimination. People who are not menstruation may feel discriminated against since they are not entitled to additional leave, which is a possible issue as well.
Despite these points, giving out additional yearly sick days and stating that it covers menstruation symptoms may be the key to staving off discrimination allegations. The development of proper organizational policies can prevent the negative impact on one’s career growth and pay rates. Such policies should focus on an individual’s professional value and accomplishments within the company rather than on the number of sick leaves. In order to address the impact on interpersonal relationships, companies might initiate education and training to expand employees’ knowledge on menstruation and display the benefits of this type of leave for individuals and their organizations. Such an educational initiative would also prevent workplace discrimination based on prejudice related to the menstruation topic and provide reasonable arguments to those who do not have menstruation. In particular, menstruation leave should not be viewed as a benefit but rather as a necessity to ensure one’s health and well-being.
Hence, employees who might not feel comfortable disclosing menstruation demands can be protected by making sure they do not need to provide a reason for their sick absence (King, 2021). In order to mainstream such policies, managers must support them and, when necessary, even take brief leaves of absence. The key benefit of menstrual leave is encouraging self-care and adapting the workday to the needs of the workplace. Mainly, instead of handling pain and emotional difficulties and overcoming oneself at the workplace, it would be more beneficial to take a leave and live through the menstruation experience without additional work-related stress. As a result, employees would recover more efficiently and be more motivated to accomplish the highest performance when they get back to work.
In conclusion, for any menstrual leave to be effective, people must feel free to take it or work more flexibly. Therefore, privacy and inclusivity ought to come first. However, the precise procedure and structure will probably take some time to establish. Building this foundation, nevertheless, is essential for the advancement of the workplace. There is a growing concern regarding menstrual leave, and its advantages should be supported.
Reference List
Baird, M., Hill, E., and Colussi, S., 2021. Mapping menstrual leave legislation and policy historically and globally: A labor entitlement to reinforce, remedy, or revolutionize gender equality at work? Comp. Lab. L. & Pol’y J., 42, pp. 187-199.
King, S., 2021. Menstrual leave: Good intention, poor solution. In Aligning Perspectives in Gender Mainstreaming (pp. 151–176). Springer, Cham.
Levitt, R.B. and Barnack-Tavlaris, J.L., 2020. Addressing menstruation in the workplace: The menstrual leave debate. In The Palgrave handbook of critical menstruation studies (pp. 561-575). Palgrave Macmillan.
Price, H.H., 2021. Periodic Leave: An Analysis of Menstrual Leave as a Legal Workplace Benefit. Oklahoma Review, 74, pp. 187-194.