Menopause at work: leading positive change - online networking event

Last week, we hosted our quarterly online networking event for the Nonpareil Network. This time, the topic was menopause in the workplace and how we can all help to bring about the positive change that we need to see employers making in this area.

When we held focus groups last year with women in the second half of their career to talk about the issues they face in the workplace, one of the topics that came up again and again was menopause and perimenopause. Although a few people reported positive steps forward with a handful of employers implementing menopause policies and menopause leave, on the whole, experiences had been quite negative - either with poor line management or poor management on behalf of the organisation as a whole. In many cases, this was down to ignorance around the subject, with line managers just not knowing enough about it to be able to support people effectively.

Our survey results showed that managers generally feel unprepared for supporting people through the menopause at work

We ran a survey of over 60 people in senior leadership and management positions to find out their perspectives on managing people affected by menopause. Half of our respondents also answered questions on their own experience of going through the menopause at work. At the event, we shared some of our findings.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, given the experiences we’d already heard about, 91% of respondents hadn’t received any training on how to support staff going through the menopause. 59% were not confident they had the right resources in place to support menopausal staff and 52% were not aware of any practices or policies in place in their organisation to support people either. 

93% of those we surveyed agreed that there needs to be more awareness around the subject so people know more about the diverse range of symptoms and also that employers and managers need to have policies and procedures available to support them. 

Some of the symptoms are extremely debilitating especially for people trying to focus on a challenging career

In terms of the symptoms that people had experienced when going through the menopause, it wasn’t just the ones we tend to think of - the hot flushes and heavy or irregular periods. As if these were not enough to contend with, symptoms such as lack of motivation, loss of concentration, memory loss, anxiety and loss of confidence were all experienced by at least 50% of those we surveyed. Just imagine trying to work, day in, day out, with even one or two of those symptoms - let alone more than that, combined with the physical challenges of the menopause too.

With all of that considered, we really feel that menopause needs to be considered not just as a women’s health issue, but a workplace issue too, and one that affects everyone, not just women who are going through the symptoms at the time.

Our guest speaker shared some fascinating insights

We were absolutely delighted to be joined by our guest speaker, Jayne Woodman, founder of The Menopause Team, which she set up to assist employers and employees in achieving significantly better mid-life health and career outcomes for women and organisations.

Jayne shared some truly astounding facts and figures around the menopause and the change that still needs to take place. For a start, women 50+ are the fastest growing segment of the UK workforce, with around 1 in 6 women at work being in this age group in 2022. So this certainly isn’t a niche issue! And more than 1,000,000 could leave their jobs this year due to a lack of menopause support at work (Guardian 2022). Generally in the UK, 1 in 10 women resign from work during the menopause with 1 in 5 passing up the chance of promotion. 

Jayne also talked about the variability in medical support for women with menopause symptoms - and the shocking fact that most GPs only undergo between 30 minutes and 2 hours of training on the menopause. She covered some of the lesser known physical and mental symptoms that people experience - and how they are so often misdiagnosed. She also reminded us that transmen and non-binary people can also experience menopause - often much earlier than ciswomen do. 

She discussed some of the things that workplaces can do to help people feel more supported, many of which we wouldn’t have necessarily thought about. For example, Tesco now provide extra uniform to people going through the menopause - this helps with managing the issues around heavy periods and excessive sweating that can be amongst the symptoms. Jayne then shared some great resources, books, podcasts and websites - but reminded us all that we should always seek evidence-based information when researching the menopause, with the British Menopause Society website being a great place to start. 

We can all take action to lead positive change

After Jayne’s fascinating session giving us a lot of food for thought, we went into breakout rooms for an opportunity to network and share ideas. Each group discussed their thoughts on how employers and managers can better support those going through menopause - and many shared personal experiences. 

Our events are always action-focused, so we also discussed what we would all start doing and implementing - either personally or at work - to ensure we are contributing to leading positive change. There were some great commitments made, and Jayne also challenged us all to go away from the event and talk to at least one person about menopause, so we can all start to try and normalise it as a topic of conversation - in the same way that mental health has become much more of a comfortable topic for people to discuss in recent years.

We all came away feeling that there is a lot of work still to do to improve things in relation to menopause in the workplace - but that it’s something that can, and will, change if we all commit to taking positive action. 

Thank you to everyone who attended the event. We hope to see you again at a future session - be sure to subscribe to our newsletter to be kept informed of future events. 

Written by co-founders of the Nonpareil Network: Helen Sandford-Taylor and Hannah Poulton

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