Subject:
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Re: Is this sexism?
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.debate
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Date:
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Thu, 28 Jun 2001 02:05:09 GMT
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Viewed:
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337 times
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In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Shiri Dori writes:
> I'll try not to make this a long ramble, but a short and to-the-point
> suggestion, and a few questions.
>
>
> I think that companies should give women a day (possibly two) sick days off
> per month to deal with the physical symptoms of their menstrual cycle. These
> days would not be transferable from month to month (what's not used gets
> lost) so that it's not possible to gain a long vacation for someone who
> doesn't suffer from physical symptoms, and never uses those days.
Are you suggesting that this time be in addition to any other sick
time or PTO time? If you consider that a womans cycle is typically
28 days, this will occur 12.7 times a year, so lets round to 13 (1).
This would result in 26 days off a year, or 208 out of 2000 hours
worked, thats 10%, one out of every 10 days! I dont know of many
businesses that can afford that much built-in lost productivity.
Where I work 26 sick days in a year would easily make you the largest
user of sick time in our department (with the execption of the occasional
serious injury or special FMLA). Although other departments have different
standards (2).
>
> While not all women get "hit badly" by their periods, many do. I personally
> find it incredibely hard to function when my stomach is flip-flopping, or
> alternatively when I'm drugged w/pain-killers, and I know I'm not the only
> one. I think the world would be a better place if women had the hardest
> day(s) of their period off - they would feel better resting in bed, their
> peers wouldn't have to suffer dealing with someone who's not in her best
> mood (1). Since the production level if someone is not feeling well is down
> to the pits, it would not be a great loss of resources to the company, yet
> working there would become worlds more attractive for women
It may not be a loss in productivity but would definitly be a loss in
the organization's resources. It could very well require that the womans
job responsibilities be covered by someone else. Where I work this would
invariably require overtime coverage, so the cost to the organization
is particularly high. I also think that there are much better ways
to make the workplace attractive to qualified women.
In general frequent users of sick time are one of the biggest problems
of an organization. An extremely high repeat user of sick time had better
be a pretty good asset to the organization in order to keep their job,
regardless of the reason. Most companies have gone away from sick time and
now use PTO, paid time off, which is used for both sick time and vacation time.
Which tends to equalize the users and non users of sick time.
off,
(1) As a practicing pharmacist, I can tell you from experiance that most
women taking oral contraceptives cycle 13 times a year, and 12 month
oral contraceptive prescriptions fall one cycle short. I also recoginze that
menstrual symptoms are real illnesses, but so is the flu or a cold,
etc.
(2) New employees get 21 PTO days per year and this number bumps up
at 5 and 8 year increments. Medical residents, however, get absolutely
no sick days ever!
--Jim
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Is this sexism?
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| I'll try not to make this a long ramble, but a short and to-the-point suggestion, and a few questions. I think that companies should give women a day (possibly two) sick days off per month to deal with the physical symptoms of their menstrual cycle. (...) (23 years ago, 27-Jun-01, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
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