Dr. Ihab Ibrahim, Gynecologist and Obstetrician Consultant said, ‘’ Menopause can have a huge impact on women functioning at work. Employers must create and support a positive and open environment for women going through menopause to help maintain their confidence and happiness at work and to prevent women from feeling like they need to hide why they may be struggling at work’’
Helen Morris, a Menopause Coach in the UK said, ‘’The impact of menopause in the workplace is significant. Based on UK figures, the fastest-growing economically active group is women between the ages of 50 & 64. This is the prime age group affected by menopause. 4,357,000 working women aged 50-64 in the UK (Office of National Statistics) 1/3 of these working women reluctantly take time out for menopausal symptoms.
Morris explained that these equates to 14 million working days per year lost by industry. Add to that the years preceding this age range and the time taken by peri-menopause, which begins 10 – 15 years before this, and business is affected.’’
Handling menopause in the workplace
Ihab mentioned that without awareness and support in the workplace, women are left struggling and many will leave the workplace. This has a tremendous impact on business, not only financially, but also in the loss of experience that the organization will experience. Even without this potential loss of staff, there is also the impact of employment tribunals to consider, which have been increasing in number over the last 10 years, citing menopause discrimination as the cause of unfair dismissal.
Will employers have a menopause policy?
He continued: It is worth having a menopause policy at the workplace. A menopause policy is useful as it helps people within the organization including supervisors, managers, and team leaders to understand what menopause is and how it can affect people. The policy may also help to identify who is a point of contact for queries related to menopause and what support is available to staff affected by it. This is very common in Western countries but in Arab countries, we still need to work more on spreading the concept.
How might Businesses be affected because of Menopause?
Many women have left careers because of the impact of menopause. The onset of anxiety, brain fog, and lack of confidence in midlife, means that many women who have reached a responsible position in the workplace, suffer from a crisis of competence, believing they have lost the ability to perform adequately in their role.
It is important to remember that not all women will have extreme or severely debilitating symptoms, but 80% of women will experience something that will have an impact on their ability to work. Recognizing that the issues of menopause can be supported if they are understood and known, will save organizations not only money but also reputation. Organizations that look after the equality, diversity, and inclusivity of their culture are 70% more likely to achieve market success, 80% more likely to improve business performance, and 45% more likely to increase market share.
The Menopause in workplace
‘’The more we can meet the needs of women for all stages of their natural physiology and give her support, from menstruation through to pregnancy and menopause, the better our workplaces will be’’ added Dr. Ihab
Even without this financial impact, it is important to recognize the demographics of organizations. In other words, how many women do you have working for it?
The more women you have, the more direct impact you will have from menopause. Remember that statistic about 4 million working days lost due to sickness absence. One of the challenges businesses have is that there is often a culture that does not encourage speaking openly about the reason for the absence. It is still not common in Arab countries to have a mechanism for recording menopause absence differently from other absences. However, without this data, it is hard for organizations to project the impact of menopause on their workforce.
There are so many improvements that can be made in the workplace to support women experiencing menopausal symptoms. Organizations have a duty of care to their employees. Even without legislation, it makes good practical sense to support your workforce as they experience this potentially challenging time.