This is ridiculous and infuriating.
A woman has taken to an online forum to vent about something that happened her in work. One of her male co-workers found out that she was on her period and it all spiralled out of control from there.
She started off her post with the title, ‘To be furious for being called out for menstruating at work?’
In this day and age, to see a statement like that is annoying, but what actually happened her is down right ridiculous.
She explains that she had horrible menstrual cramps and that pain killers just weren’t relieving the pain, so she got the hot water bottle she uses during the winter months to soothe the cramps. Enter caveman.
She details what happens next on Mumsnet:
“I fill the hot water bottle, nestle it in my lap, and I’m back to work. My sort-of-supervisor* we’ll call Guy comes over to talk to me about something, notices the hot water bottle, says “there’s no way you’re cold today, are you?” I say “um, no, just for the pain relief”. He looks confused and then literally horrified and then he walks away.
Less than ten minutes later, I get a Slack message from one of the HR admins (HR is based in another office a few hours away) to say “Guy says you’re not well and should go home, everything OK?”
I say, ‘I’m fine, this is sort of weird, he just looked a bit shocked that I had a hot water bottle, I’ve got cramps, you know how it is.'”
You think this is bad, keep reading:
“She goes silent and then offline completely, ten more minutes later, the HR Director calls me and asks me if I can find a meeting room, which I do. She then tells me that I shouldn’t disclose my medical problems to anyone who isn’t part of HR as it can make them uncomfortable.
I’m literally shocked, I explain exactly what happened, she says “yes I understand, if you’re so unwell you need a hot water bottle you should be home, Guy is extremely uncomfortable and it’s unprofessional”. I say “this is weird, ok, anything else”? She’s quite breezy and professional – “No, that’s all, if you’re feeling better that’s great but if you need to, please do go home, OK bye!”
The woman then said that she was left ‘flabbergasted’ and furious, asking if she is right to feel this way.
We can answer for everyone here… YES.
Damn right you are correct for feeling angered.
