Spain’s Proposed ‘Period Leave’ - Why Not Trust Your Staff with Their Sick Days as Standard?

Back in May Spain introduced a draft bill proposing that anyone who experienced periods could take three to five extra days of leave a month for period-related pain. ‘Period leave’ would be granted to those who need it, evidenced with a doctor’s note. The intention here is good, but the truth is this policy makes me feel way more uncomfortable than my periods ever have.

Policies are necessary for a business. They set out the terms of engagement between employee and employer when managing a difficult situation such as a grievance or disciplinary, or important arrangements like maternity or paternity leave and pay, among many other things. Period pain, however, is not a situation that requires terms of engagement to manage. Periods are not a circumstance that need to be tightly monitored with a set of rules or any paperwork to demonstrate their need for a response. They should not require proof to warrant permission to manage them. Not just because periods vary from person to person and from month to month but because, quite frankly, I don’t want my employer to help me manage my periods, I want them to give me the freedom to manage them myself as only I know how.

The issue with this policy is that it demonstrates a lack of trust between employer and employee. This way of managing a business doesn’t work if you’re trying to build a truly flexible and inclusive culture, which is what we are trying (and I think succeeding) to do at Mr. President.

We’re fully aware that circumstances vary person to person; last minute issues pop up, childcare arrangements fall through, mental health issues can make themselves known unexpectedly, life happens all the time. Including periods. People will always be trying to juggle the requirements of their work life and their personal life. Employers should stop pushing against this or trying to control it and instead just let it be. Trust your employees to make good judgement calls about the use of their time, to be able to fulfil the needs of their jobs as well as manage their own personal needs, knowing they have the flexibility to do this. This is true flexible working - take what you need when you need it. It’s the simplest way to ensure everyone gets treated equally. We don’t want our employees to second guess whether they ‘deserve’ or are ‘entitled’ to it, they just know that we trust them to manage their own time.

We've taken this one step further: we encourage our employees to manage their own personal development too. Each employee manages their own development diary, they dictate the frequency at which they wish to discuss their own personal development. They are of course supported by their line manager, but the process is not dictated by rules, timelines and mandates, it is flexible, to accommodate the needs of the individual and help them map out their own career path and future. It is this sort of empowerment and autonomy that allows employees to thrive, knowing that we trust them and will support them when they need us.

Of course, there are times when intervention is necessary. Sometimes people need reminding that they have flexibility and how to use it, but that is all part of being an inclusive leader. Listening to and observing what is going on in our  team is a big part of my role, providing timely reminders and leading by example.

So thanks, but no thanks to a period policy. We don’t need more policies to outline how we engage, we just need to build working cultures that allow people to do what they need to do to manage their own needs.