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If you can't find what you're looking for here or in our Index, or have any questions please email us. The Occupational Health team can also help you with expert confidential advice and support.
Spectrum Life is our Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) which is a confidential, neutral service provided by an external company to support colleagues at the University, including free counselling.
Menopause: Managers' Guidance
Managers should familiarise themselves with this guidance. If a colleague is experiencing symptoms they should be encouraged to also seek advice and support from their doctor with regard to their health.
Your role as a manager is to support your colleague, the University does not expect you to be an expert in menopause. They will be receiving medical support from their doctor and if medical support is needed at work then you can refer to Occupational Health. If this is necessary then the advice should be implemented, where reasonably practical.
All adjustments and actions should be recorded and regularly reviewed. If initial adjustments are unsuccessful the line manager may discuss a further referral to Occupational Health for further advice.
Discussion with colleague
It is recommended that you have regular informal conversations with colleagues you line manage to enable discussions of changes in health, but please ensure that the principles of the menopause guidance are followed and that you:
- Allow adequate time to have the conversation.
- Find an appropriate room to preserve confidentiality.
- Encourage them to speak openly and honestly.
- Ensure that you have asked them how they wish to be supported and how you can help.
- Suggest ways in which they can be supported (see symptoms below) – and refer them to the guidance document if they have not seen it.
- Agree actions, and how to implement them. Ensure that this record is treated as confidential, and is stored securely. Ensure that designated time is allowed for a follow up meeting.
- Agree if other members of the team should be informed, and by whom.
- Ensure that you are informed and up to date regarding menopausal issues in the workplace.
Support
Managers and colleagues should ensure they work together to alleviate the symptoms of menopause. Symptoms can be both physical and psychological, including, but not exhaustively or exclusively; hot flushes, cold sweats, heavy/light periods, headaches, difficulty sleeping, mood swings, low mood, loss of confidence, poor concentration, anxiety, panic attacks and difficulty sleeping.
Supportive measures include (please note that this list is not exhaustive and other measures may be considered):
- Temperature control for their work area. This could be a desk fan or the option to move near a window or away from a heat source such as a radiator.
- Easy access and availability to drinking water.
- Easy access and availability to sanitary products across the University campus.
- Easy access and availability to washroom facilities (see the wellbeing map for locations of showers around campus).
- If there is a uniform (and if appropriate) allowing employees to adapt it e.g. remove a jacket during a hot flush. The availability of additional items of uniform and the availability of somewhere to change if needed.
- Access to a rest room for staff breaks where work involves long periods of standing or an area where staff can move around in breaks from more sedentary roles.
- In customer-focused or public-facing roles, offer a quiet space to work for periods of time, if needed, where possible.
- Offer noise-reducing headphones to wear in open offices.
- Reminding colleagues you line manage of their opportunity to request flexible working and where possible making use of flexi-time, particularly when suffering from a lack of sleep.
- Absence will be treated as an ongoing health issue.
- Ensure there are regular Personal Development Review discussions and that health is discussed in these.
- Discuss if there are times of the day when concentration is better or worse, and adjust working pattern/practice accordingly.
- Review task allocation and workload.
- Use wellbeing tools available to support mental ill-health such as Workplace Pressures Risk Assessment.
- Provide books for lists, action boards, or other memory-assisting equipment.
- Discuss with your colleague the possibility of undertaking mindfulness activities such as breathing exercises, or going for a walk.
- Consider any other reasonable adjustments that could be made, these may only be needed on a temporary basis.
Training
Bitesize Learning: Menopause at Work
The University's in-house Occupational Health Team runs this one-hour session which provides information on peri-menopause and menopause and an opportunity to consider the potential impact of the condition on work.
The session is aimed at all colleagues and managers who want to know more about the symptoms of menopause and how they can be managed. It will provide managers with information on how they can support those with symptoms at work.
Please go to the Learning and Development course information page for more details and to book a place in a session: Menopause at Work.
Other info
Other information to bear in mind:
- Absence will be treated as an ongoing health issue.
- Peri-/menopausal symptoms are now listed as a separate sickness absence category.
- Ensure there are regular discussions with those you line manage and that health and wellbeing is discussed in these.
- Consider any other reasonable adjustments that could be made, these may only be needed on a temporary basis.
- Regularly review any adjustments made to ensure that they are working and or still necessary.
External info
- The menopause at work: a practical guide for people managers (CIPD)
- Menopause: a guide for managers (NHS)
- Supporting employees through the menopause (BUPA)
Please see the main menopause guidance page for more a more extensive list of external resources which is updated regularly.