Dismantling the last taboo

We hear the word wellness in real estate a lot. Maybe even too much. Everyone is talking about it and everyone is very quick to talk about whether their building is WELL certified or not and about how wellness is key when attracting and retaining talent. But there is one word that is never spoken when we talk about wellness. It is a word that is barely said out loud at all, in fact. And certainly not in real estate. I mean, why would it be talked about in a business setting? What is this word? Menopause. Yep, there it is. A word that I imagine many traditional readers of EG may think has no place in a commercial property setting. But at MIPIM UK this year, on World Menopause Day, EG and our diversity and inclusion network, REWIRE, sought to end the taboo around the menopause and showcase exactly why real estate (and every other business out there) should be aware of, prepared for and unafraid of the menopause. Alongside the certainty in life that is death and taxes, there is one more certainty in life for all women – that they will experience the menopause. Menopausal women are the fastest-growing workforce demographic with more than 3.5m women aged between 50 and 65 in work in the UK. That means that whether you say the word or not, the menopause will impact your business. Keeping hush Despite this, it remains one of the last taboos. That fact has led to more than 70% of women keeping hush about their menopause at work, despite half saying it affected their mental health, 25% saying it made them want to stay at home and one in 10 saying it caused them to give up work. Real estate has done a great job over the past few years at attracting more young women into the industry but its ability to hold on to those women through the full cycle of their career still has room for improvement. Learning to talk about the menopause in as grown-up a way as businesses can now talk about pregnancy, mental health, sexuality, race and gender may well be a solution to that issue. At MIPIM UK, a mixed panel discussed their experiences and shared best practice advice for any business serious about holding on to its best talent. Extreme symptoms “There is a multitude of reasons as to why a woman gives up work,” said Kate Usher, menopause coach and founder of 2nd Phase, “but high among them is that the symptoms they are experiencing are so extreme that they feel unable to continue doing what they are doing.” Nicky Richmond, managing partner of law firm Brecher, sympathises. “I nearly left work,” she says. “I thought there was something wrong with me. I thought I was suffering from depression. I wasn’t sleeping. I was 52 and I started looking at the symptoms of menopause and I didn’t have the classic symptoms. Mine was a lot of anxiety and depression, so I didn’t immediately think menopause.” Real estate can’t afford to lose women from its workforce. No business can. According to Oxford Economics, it costs on average £30,000 to replace a lost woman from a business. “From a business point of view, to lose 10% of your female workforce at a certain age is ludicrous,” says GVA chief executive Gerry Hughes. “You spend a lot of time investing in people and losing them when they are at the peak of their career is not good business.” We have in-house coaches for performance, for achieving goals, for learning new skills. We have all of that. This is the same.” He adds: “But it is more than that. As a chief executive, I have a commercial responsibility, yes, but I also have a responsibility to create a caring, supportive business that supports all staff through different facets of their life. We have got to start talking about these issues.” “The first rule of menopause is that we have to talk about the menopause,” says Usher. “And that has to start at the top. It has to start with senior management. They have to lead the way. It is what they say and do that decides what happens in an organisation and once they start to talk about it, it trickles down to management, then down to their teams. At that point menopause will become normalised and it will be an everyday topic within a workplace.” How to start? But how exactly do we start talking about the menopause?  With the growing focus on wellness, workplaces are starting to provide spaces and policies that should make it easier for women going through the menopause. Flexible working – so that when those sleepless nights hit women can start work later – is one policy experts suggest implementing, alongside the ability for employees to exercise during their working day. Exercise has been proven to ease the symptoms of menopause. More practically, fans need to be made available, as do well-positioned bathrooms.  Therapist Hillary Lewin was first on the panel at MIPIM UK to talk about the most taboo of taboo subjects when it comes to the menopause – blood – and how sometimes, women’s bodies during this period of their life do not behave as they should and embarrassing moments of flooding can occur. Bathrooms need to be readily available for moments like this and for the common hot flushes, which Lewin – and other members of the panel – admitted can be so bad they require a change of clothes. In-house coaching  “Companies need to look at getting menopause supported within their health plans, and have in-house coaching or therapy,” says Lewin. “We have in-house coaches for performance, for achieving goals, for learning new skills. We have all of that. This is the same.” “There is nothing else in the workforce as far as scale that comes close to the menopause if you think about the percentages of people in the workforce who are going to be experiencing it and are experiencing it at any one time,” adds Usher.  Indeed, that 3.5m women of menopausal age who are currently in the workforce is only going to grow as we work longer and workplaces become more gender balanced. Talking about the menopause and breaking the taboo around it is the first step. Creating work environments and workplaces that are designed to cater for all generations of women – and men – will be the next big step. “This is about menopause having an equal position in the well‐being environment,” says Usher, “that women have a psychologically safe environment where they can declare what is going on with them and where they can expect to be heard and expect to be supported.” Hughes, the only man brave enough to agree to be on the panel despite the sniggers from some colleagues, sums it up best. “This is about creating an environment where you get the best out of people all the way throughout their careers regardless of age or sex or sexual orientation or whatever,” he says. “A balanced workforce is an effective workforce.” Share your thoughts with us on whether menopause should remain a taboo subject in the workplace or whether it should be freely talked about and thought about when it comes to the design of and culture of a workplace. Email Samantha.mcclary@egi.co.uk or tweet @samanthamcclary using #menopause  To send feedback, e-mail samantha.mcclary@egi.co.uk or tweet @samanthamcclary or @estatesgazette