Periods are a valid reason to stay home from work.
Some people think periods are blessed celebrations of the cycles of womanhood and its connection to the earth. Some people think periods are an annoying, painful pain in the vagina. One boss thinks periods are a valid reason to stay home from work.
Bex Baxter, director of Coexist (an education non-profit in England), says, “I have managed many female members of staff over the years and I have seen women at work who are bent over double because of the pain caused by their periods. Despite this, they feel they cannot go home because they do not class themselves as unwell. And this is unfair. At Coexist we are very understanding. If someone is in pain—no matter what kind—they are encouraged to go home.”
SOMEBODY GIVE BEX BAXTER A NOBEL PEACE PRIZE RIGHT THIS VERY SECOND!!!!!
For Americans, who are still fighting for things like paid sick leave and paid maternity leave, the idea of being able to take a day or two off to nurse cramps, headaches, bad moods, and painful boobs, period time off is about as likely to happen as a unicorn is to prance into my kitchen right now. But how amazing is the idea of being able to take time off when you feel like crap, even if that is caused by hormones (as opposed to a virus)?
One of these days American companies will figure out that not working for a while sometime helps the process of doing work later on. Until that fateful day, we can just envy the employees of Coexist.
