Posted on 05/09/2022 9:46:51 AM PDT by Brookhaven
A reader writes:
I’m a manager in an overseas office of an American company. About two-thirds of our employees were hired locally, with the remainder (mostly managers) having relocated from the United States.
Under local law, women are allowed one day off per month to care for menstrual symptoms. Women wishing to use this benefit are required to give notice by the start of the workday that they will be absent, manager approval is not required, and it will not count against their leave balance.
Our legal division, based back in the the States, determined that this local rule is unfair because it: (1) constructively requires women to disclose their menstrual/health status by virtue of invoking that leave category, and (2) it is discriminatory because it provides a benefit to women that men do not receive. I disagree with point 1 on the basis that one is technically disclosing their health status anytime they request sick leave and no one seems to mind that. Point 2 feels very “why is there no white history month?” to me, but okay.
Anyway, the legal division advised that we have to extend this benefit to all local employees. So now, even though local law does not require it, our branch has a policy that any locally-employed member of staff can take an unscheduled day off every single month, no questions asked. (Note: This law was the result of years of women’s rights advocacy. The letter of the law is not perfect since obviously not all women menstruate, and not all people who menstruate consider themselves women. Local law controversially does not acknowledge transgender, nonbinary, and intersex persons. But the spirit of it was definitely meant to accommodate menstruation and did not contemplate cisgender men availing themselves of period leave. Women workers here use an honor system and take very seriously the need to only invoke this leave category when they truly need it for fear of ruining it for others.)
It is becoming a mess. I have had no issues with the women on my team, but a locally-employed man on my team (who has made it clear he is not a trans man) is clearly misusing this leave category. For example, we were closed for a local holiday on Thursday and again the following Monday. He took “period leave” the Friday in between, even though it left us in the lurch for a big meeting that day in which he had a key role. Everyone knows he did that just to give himself an extra long weekend, during which he openly went on a pre-planned vacation. When I tried to level with him offline as in “Dude, you know this leave category is meant for women, what are you doing?” he looped in HR, who warned me that I’m not allowed to question an employee’s use of period leave. I feel like I’m taking crazy pills!
(Women had started calling these leave days “mother’s day” to be delicate. When my male direct-report called out last week, he said he was taking a “father’s day,” but HR confirmed that’s not a thing. It’s still period leave, it’s just that men are also entitled to it.)
Are we really just stuck with this ridiculous rule? I’m ready to write to legal to suggest an alternative interpretation, but I’m not sure what alternative will satisfy both the spirit of the local law and U.S. non-discrimination laws. A local friend in another industry told me her company has a rule that “period leave” cannot be taken on a Friday, Monday, or adjacent to a holiday. While that solves part of the problem, what if someone really does happen to have debilitating menstrual cramps on one of the blackout days? I’d love to hear your input and that of your readers.
This is ridiculous.
Does your male coworker want cramps too?
I don’t know how I feel about the period leave system in general, but I’m not part of the culture that has it. It apparently works in the culture you’re in. Trying to making another culture’s law comply with U.S. employment law is at the root of this, and it’s unnecessary. U.S. law doesn’t apply where you are; the laws of your jurisdiction do. Your U.S. headquarters isn’t required to impose U.S. rules on your office (just like a London-based employer isn’t required to apply UK vacation minimums to U.S.-based employees).
Your country’s law is saying, “We’re giving this accommodation to everyone with this specific medical condition (difficult periods).” By responding that everyone must get that, your U.S. office is doing the equivalent of saying “if people with wheelchairs get special parking, everyone needs to get special parking.” Moreover, they’re undermining the accommodation for people who do have difficult periods — the very people it was intended for — because now they get a day off when they feel sick, and non-period-having people get a day off for fun. That’s not equal and it’s clearly not what the law was intended to do. (And yes, women in your office could respond by taking a day off every month whether they need it or not, but that sounds totally at odds with the culture of this benefit in your country.)
It might be interesting to talk with a local lawyer about whether your company’s “solution” violates the local law — because if the law is written in a way that requires women to be given an additional day, separate from the rest of the time off the company provides, your company’s policy wouldn’t comply.
All the guys need to do it. One could make an argument, if they don’t, it will incentivize the firm to hire fewer women.
That would be intrusive, too - should demand a doctor’s report every year by age 45 of whether they’re menopausal or not yet.
If I was still union, I’d do it…
My tagline applies to all of these B$ fluff ups!
A man can have cramps if he is married to a woman having cramps.
(humor is free)
It’s a bro!
ROTFLMAO
Well played, sir!
Does a woman working here need to notify management if they have passed menopause or had a hysterectomy and no longer have a menstruation?
Two conflicting insanities, as I see it.
1. That only women can take the day off for feeling cramps.
2. That there is no such thing as a woman so a man is a woman and a woman is a man and he can take the day off too.
You can’t fight insanity with sanity.
What country gives its employees a period day?
Well, you’re stuck because of what your legal division has told you. The only way out of this is to get the attention of someone higher up operationally who can go in to you Chief Legal Officer’s office, close the door, and ask him what the F€®# is going in with the advice his department is giving.
Japan, South Korea and some states in India.
Maybe it’s part of the eastern culture?
The older I get the more I agree.
I can’t believe that in 20+ comments no one has brought up The Bee.
Reality is getting too weird. Stop the world, I want to get off. Too many people can only emote. One can’t spell “stupid” with out the “Id”.
FWIW,”P” and “F” are fairly closely related letters, so it doesn’t take much to get “Stupid” by combining “STFU” and “Id”.
Infact, if one simply leaves the “F” as silent and fully expresses the “U”, one can claim that it is a compound word.
St. Isidore of Seville would be proud—it is like something right out of his etymologies.
And this post reminds me of James Joyce—who may have wanted a “Room of One’s Own” himself, but wasn’t trans enough to ask for it.
Well played, sir!
Does that mean that you know this is a prank?
You just don’t know how bad menstrual cramps hurt us guys. It’s different for guys.
Wait, you don’t feel its discriminatory, because women get it and men don’t, but then when a man takes it it dives you crazy?
Yet you go through the point of telling us the man doesn’t identify as Trans??? Well why would that matter, a trans man doesn’t have periods either...
I don’t disagree this is crazy, but this person can’t seem to see they are part of the cray to begin with.
If you accept that men can be women and women can be me, which they seem to since they point out the Trans label as somehow some overwride of biology... then everything goes crazy... YOU are part of the problem whoever you are...
What is it to you if a man gets a period? /s
How about women take midol and work - even if from home.
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