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Man Reported A Girl Using Hot Water Bag On Her Period To The HR As It Made Him ‘Uncomfortable’

byNeha Tanwar
10th October 2017
4 minute read

Menstruation or periods is a normal bodily function which every woman undergoes right from her teenage years.  Despite this, the taboo associated with menstruating women never ceases to leave us dumbfounded at the sheer ignorance of people who regard it as something vile or dirty and expect women to keep it concealed.

This is exactly what happened when a woman was reported to the HR by her Supervisor for soothing her period cramps with a hot water bottle. Yes, you read that right!

The incident happened in the UK, when a woman, who was suffering from periods was asked about the hot water bottle nestled in her lap by her Supervisor. When she informed him about her condition he appeared flabbergasted and proceeded to report her to the HR department.

Representative Image

The furious woman took to Mumsnet, a British parenting site, to anonymously share her ordeal over a normal bodily function. She wrote,

Having horrible menstrual cramps, naproxen isn’t touching it, and I remember I have a hot water bottle in my desk drawer – I used it all winter in my freezing office, and a few other people, male and female, have one as well – we have a rule against personal space heaters so it can be nice to have under your desk next to your feet.

Anyway. 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.”

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!”

I’m just completely flabbergasted. Especially considering that Guy has been known to take meetings with clients whilst laying flat on the floor on his back because of back problems – which seems to me both unprofessional and likely to make people uncomfortable, not that I really cared personally. I wouldn’t have had my hot water bottle in a client meeting or even if clients were in the office.

Other people have standing desks, weird foot rests, all kinds of chairs and special backrests for their back pain and wrist braces for their wrist pain and a hundred other things and I’m not allowed to have a hot water bottle for my menstrual cramps? Am I right to be completely fucking furious?

*I normally have no problem with Guy, we don’t work closely, no one else does what I do at work but he comes closest and he does my nominal (and always positive) performance reviews and signs off on my holiday.

A Twitter user read this on the website and shared it on her Twitter. Naturally, people are furious at the man for his outrageous attitude towards a normal bodily function.

1. Immature.

2. Ignorant.

3. Unprofessional behaviour.

4. Exactly. It’s that normal.

5. Mind your own business.

6. The HR was criticised

7. Whoa

8. A furious reaction

9. Some chose to answer it with sarcasm.

10. Outraged.

Periods have long been used as an excuse to describe women as the weaker sex and the ignorance of people like “Guy” further adds to the uncomfortable position women are subjected to for a normal biological function.

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