Nowadays we live in a modern world where we forget about our nature. Women are expected to work 20 days a month on average and be emotionally present to complete the work. I see that a lot of work conflicts happen simply because we have forgotten to be vulnerable and open. We hide our emotions and feelings as something to be ashamed of instead of expressing and sharing what and how we feel. Women are usually more emotional especially before or during their periods and it is often seen as something abnormal or considered as having bad manners. There has been lack of education about periods and what women might feel each week of the month, as each week carries different meaning. I was very happy to come across an article “UK company to introduce ‘period policy’ for female staff” by The Guardian. It is a very powerful and vulnerable article, which explains how business actually can do better by allowing women to follow the natural cycles. There maybe an intelligent employee who does her job really well, but she might be in pain every month. Your company won’t do better if you have an employee sitting in pain or even worth if she needs to run a conference while feeling sick. Taking care of your employees is the right approach if you want your company to succeed. There are women who feel very emotional before their periods, and they try to hide their emotions and keep working. Do you think your company will do well when one of your staff members is being very emotional, like feeling angry for example? I have seen many times when you speak to someone on the phone from a company or you buy something from the shop, the the employee is being rude or simply feeling down. Tell them to smile and change their mood because they are at work, they will probably tell all their friends how “shitty” is their boss. So how can we cope with emotions and period periods in this modern world?

• Hire someone (a coach, a psychologist, etc.) outside your company so your employees are more open to express how they feel, explain to them that each time they feel emotional they should take some time off (it can be simply 10 min) and see the person you hired to express how they feel. From my personal experience, we had one colleague that needed to cry for 20 minutes to calm down her pms and after that she was able to work again and do her job really well. Learning to express your emotions can benefit your company in a great way.
• Educate female staff to keep record of their periods so they know days when they are at the highest potential and when they shouldn’t arrange any meetings or conferences.
• Allow your female staff to take time off when they need it – it can be a day off or even half day off. They will do much better if they are connected to their natural cycles.

You will see great changes within your company – your staff will be much happier and happier employees means happier clients.

With love!