The Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (Acas) has recently published new guidance to help employers support staff who are affected by menopause symptoms and to ensure that staff going through the menopause are supported in the workplace. Advice to employers includes implementing a menopause policy, providing awareness training for managers, offering altered working hours and providing desk fans.
This will be a welcome breakthrough for the two million women who face difficulties at work because of one of the workplace’s biggest taboos: the menopause.
Menopause is not just a female issue – it is an organisational issue. Awareness on this topic is fundamental in reducing the stigma attached to it.
With our population now living and working longer, and with an increasing number of women in the workplace in senior positions, menopausal women are the fastest-growing group of workers in the UK. As women experience menopause at an average age of 51, and many work for at least another 15 years, it affects a large proportion of today’s workforce.
The menopause places a heavy personal and professional burden on as many as one in four women. Many struggle through work on limited sleep, reduced confidence, lack of energy and hot flushes, whilst trying to maintain their roles at work to the best of their ability and reluctant to ask for support. The effects of menopause can lead to women feeling ill, losing confidence to do their job or feeling stressed, anxious or depressed. This can result in them taking time off work unnecessarily or even resigning, when some simple measures could help them to continue to work comfortably.
Speaking up about menopause in the workplace isn’t easy and a lot of women are suffering in silence because they feel too embarrassed to raise issues that are having a detrimental impact on their work. Furthermore, many line managers feel uncomfortable discussing these issues because they lack the awareness and confidence to deal with matters appropriately.
Menopause symptoms are protected under employment law through the Equalities Act 2010 on the grounds of sex, age and disability discrimination. It is an employer’s responsibility to support employees at work, whether there is a formal menopause policy in place or not. Employers need to ensure that existing policies and practices on employee ill-health, dignity at work and flexible working are applied fairly and sensitively to employees going through the menopause.
The new Acas guidelines provide employers with the knowledge they need to fully understand their colleagues who are struggling with menopause symptoms and gives employees the necessary tools to feel confident in approaching their employers if they are suffering from menopause symptoms, which will hopefully take away the fear and worry of speaking openly.