Our thanks to Dave for this. If it was 1 April today, rather than 1 March, I’d have dismissed it as an April Fool’s Day spoof story. The second paragraph:
Social enterprise company Coexist plans to let women have extra time off during their period, and tap to their employee’s natural cycle to create a “happier and healthier” working environment.
If I’d been shown the piece without an indication of where it had been published, I’d have guessed The Daily Mash. Instead, it’s in HuffPo. Another extract:
The policy, which will be put into place on 15 March, follows the ethos that women are up to three times more productive in the days after their period has finished, but can have less energy when they are menstruating.
The ethos that women are…? Incredible. And why are employers paying women their full salaries on days their productivity is so appalling?
Maybe it’s really a spoof piece, after all. I look forward to the company adopting a policy of female employees not having to work on days they’d be happier not working. That would surely boost productivity enormously.
They claim that the women would still have to make up the hours. Unlikely if already working full time hours. But, if so, they have no reason not to offer the same flexible hours to any male employees. Are they going to give men time off to get rid or “blue balls” for consistency?
Given a choice between working with a company that treats its employees like adults and expects them to fulfil their part of the employment contract and one which mollycoddles them and actually encourages shirking, I know which I would choose.
next thing we hear is female soldiers will get their period time off. Yes,during combat too.
I wouldn’t like to plan rosters/ staffing levels when periods could be unpredictable. The NHS is over-represented by women so if this was introduced to the public sector, we could all be nursing ourselves.