Introduction

This chapter considers the poor fit between workplace policy and menopause considerations in UK organizations, coming at these issues through the lens of flexible work and its utilization in workplaces. As the editors and other contributors here have amply demonstrated, for many organizations, policy and practice supporting menopause transitions in the workplace has constituted a blind spot in human resource management (HRM) processes. Rather than explicitly engaging in the issue, managers have tended to approach changing work needs around menopause through a work adjustment process. This is more typical of the way in which organizations have responded to the difficulties that 9– 5 office-bound working patterns can pose for older workers, for example, through designing flexible working arrangements or making other adjustments to standardized working patterns. This chapter takes the position that this kind of approach can be inappropriate for a stage in the lifecourse that is fluctuating and variable. Rather, organizational offers around flexible work would be improved through becoming more responsive, and managers more adept at designing and monitoring flexible working arrangements.

Loretto and Vickerstaff (2015) have made the case for adopting a more critical analysis of the role of flexible work in managing older workers, with gender cited as a key differentiator of experiences. Given the alignment of the average age of menopause at 51 (Brewis et al, 2017) with the ‘older worker’ category of 50+ frequently used in labour market analysis, it might be expected that menopause is a key component driving women's flexible work requests at this point in their working lives. Indeed, given rising life expectancy and the upward policy manipulation of the state pension age, and the pressures that these place upon older workers to remain active in the workforce well beyond menopause, there is a strong economic imperative for more responsive solutions to be developed around flexible work that can support the extension of working lives. In this chapter, these issues are considered with reference to three separate pieces of research by the author which have resonance for bringing together flexible work around menopause management.