These days, we openly talk about virtually everything. So why oh why are some shtum when it comes to menopause? Too many barely whisper the word when it’s a life transition that can be debilitating for so many women, especially at work.
Deborah Garlick is the founder of Henpicked, a community driving culture change around menopause in the UK and beyond. In workshops and at conferences, Henpicked is showing employers how to become ‘menopause-friendly’ to the enormous benefit of their employees' mental health and their corporate wealth.
Notes * Many men keen to learn how to support women through the menopause transition * Roots of Henpicked and how menopause in the workplace mission developed * Resistance to opening up about menopause at work from some women? * Demographic reality of menopausal women living longer and needing/wanting to work into their 60s and 70s * One in four women is “completely lambasted” by menopause and feel their only option is to quit working * Deborah’s workshops help women understand the litany of symptoms they may not have known are linked to menopause * Employers quick to see benefits of becoming ‘menopause-friendly’, retaining and hiring menopausal women * Henpicked is working with (as yet unnamed) UK employer poised to promote itself as ‘menopause-friendly’ in job adverts - an exciting first in UK and perhaps anywhere * UK employers blazing a trail on menopause best practice? * What next for Henpicked?
Links * Henpicked * Menopause in the Workplace * What do working menopausal women
want? * Deborah's book Menopause: The Change for the Better * Deborah on Twitter * Henpicked on Twitter