Myself and Mel regularly meet up to explore a variety of issues that may impact the team’s health and wellbeing, so with 80% of our female team members being 40+, the menopause is a topic that we felt would be on the minds of a large number of our team and therefore something we, as a company, should be addressing.
For me personally, as one of the Directors (and also one of the 80%), I felt I needed to find out more information about the menopause, not only to educate myself, but also to raise awareness and give the rest of the Paramount team the knowledge and confidence to discuss it openly too.
We started by joining a few webinars run by Henpicked and from there started ‘Embracing Changes’. This not only includes a space on the company network for anyone in our team to access information, but also getting together every other month to discuss issues like the menopause openly.
We’ve just had our first ‘Embracing Changes’ meeting on the menopause and both Mel and myself were very proud when the whole team connected on Teams to attend as it’s not just a women’s issue. The meetings will be a place where we:
- Share credible resources with each other
- Share different coping strategies for symptoms
- Provide support to each other and also family members of those going through the menopause
- Can learn about our own feelings and needs at this time of life, and to be able to feel confident in sharing that with our partners/family
- Can bring some lightness to a topic that is usually kept quiet and unspoken about.
The menopause and the symptoms someone may have, shouldn’t just be something they ‘put up with’. Our hope is that by starting the conversation we can start to help our team feel confident to talk to us about it, to talk to their families about it, to take the taboo of the subject away along with the awkwardness of discussing related issues, like hair loss, libido, night sweats etc.
Both Mel and I know there is still a lot of work to do but we are committed to keeping the menopause conversation going at Paramount.
We’d both be really interested in hearing your views, have you thought about and/or started the menopause conversation in your company? If you have what benefits have you found so far?
Karen Walsh, Director
Direct Dial: 01228 815390
Email: [email protected]