Suing over the menopause will make the workplace tougher for the rest of us

SUddEnLy, all anyone can talk about is that once taboo subject — the menopause. After celebrities from davina McCall to Jo Whiley shared their very personal experiences, we now have women battling the mistaken assumption that the onset of hot flushes, the occasional brain fog or feeling low from time to time renders you unfit for the workplace.

According to figures from HM Courts & Tribunals Service, there were five employment tribunal cases citing menopause as the reason for complaint in the last nine months of 2018, rising to ten in the first six months of 2021.

In one case in Scotland, a woman won £ 28,000 w hen s he c laimed h er boss would humiliate her in front of colleagues and called her a dinosaur in front of customers in relation to her going through the menopause. In another example,

a social worker brought a case against Leicester City Council, claiming unfair dismissal as her depression a nd a nxiety d uring t he menopause had been ignored.

Winning such a case may sound like a great result, but I’m not so sure w omen a re d oing t hemselves any favours. What they are doing is s etting t hemselves — a nd o ther midlife women — apart from the rest of the workforce.

Employers must be terrified that they may put a foot wrong andend up with an expensive court case. Compensation of £28,000 sounds like a lot, but success in tribunal has often been found to be a Pyrrhic victory.

Other possible employers might be reluctant to take on a woman who has taken her previous one to

court, and it has been shown to be difficult generally for women in this age group to find a new job.

The Centre for Ageing Better has revealed more than a third of jobless over-50s believe ageism is preventing their return to work.

It is surely not worth losing a job you love and are good at, your salaryandyourpension,justfor

the satisfaction of proving the boys’ banter about your hot flush was upsetting and inappropriate.

If the fear of compensation claims persuades employers to learn more about what women can go through at this time of life and they teach themselves — and the men they employ — that insulting o r u ndervaluing a w oman because o f a n atural a nd i nevitable condition is sex discrimination and against the law, all very well. But,assomeonewhohasbeenthere a nd s urvived t he m enopause, I recommend caution.

It is not wise to draw attention to th efact thatthere’s a shortperiod in your working life when you might not be as sassy and sharp as usual. Employers have long found excuses not to hire us.

ROCk-SOLId laws p revent a ny q uestions about plans to have children, b ut t here a re still women who lose their jobs because they are pregnant. The Equality and Human Rights C ommission puts the number pushed out because of pregnancy or maternity leave at 54,000 a year.

In middle age, in a senior position doing work you love, why give employers another reason to think taking on a woman will make life difficult a nd e xpensive?

The menopause does not last for very long. Some sail through with no symptoms at all, some suffer very mildly and others rely on HRT. The number of menopausal women who might feel too rotten to work is vanishingly small. Stick it out is my advice. Women are all too often the more loyal, hardworking and undervalued in any workplace — menopausal or not.