Period Leaves: Zomato Delivers Much Needed Relief For Female Staffers

Period Leaves: Zomato Delivers Much Needed Relief For Female Staffers

In heartening news, Zomato has introduced “period leaves” for its female and transgender employees, whereby they can apply for 10 such days off a year. The Indian restaurant aggregator and food delivery start-up announced this on August 8.

I know that menstrual cramps are very painful for a lot of women and we have to support them through it if we want to build a truly collaborative culture at Zomato,” the company’s founder and CEO, Deepinder Goyal, said.

Explaining the reason behind 10 days of leave in a blog, Zomato said that most women have 14 menstrual cycles in a year. Adjusting for the probability of someone having their periods on a weekend, one can avail 10 extra leaves compared to men.

This news has excited many women who hope that this much-needed initiative will inspire other companies and governments to follow suit. 

Most of the social and gender innovations first happen at the big tech companies like Google and Facebook. I never expected Zomato to introduce this much needed social change. It is high time that periods are considered a normal and natural process and they should be given due credit,” said Sarmistha, a bank employee.

The company expects female employees not to be ashamed of applying for period leaves. At the same time, it wants no one to misuse them. 

Zomato accepted the fact that men and women are born with different biological realities and “it is our job to make room for them while not lowering the bar for the quality of work” 

While everyone knows about the social stigma associated with menstruation that prevents women from freely expressing issues related to their periods, the restaurant aggregator has asked its employees to speak up if they face any unnecessary harassment or distasteful comments on the matter.

Approving the move, Shravani, an engineering student, said “It’s a good decision and I hope it would become standard practice in Odisha and around the globe soon. It is time that both women and men start talking about periods so that we can have one less social issue and a more comforting society. Somebody needed to show the torch and I am glad that an Indian company like Zomato did it.”

Zomato also had a word of advice for men — they should not be uncomfortable about the topic. “It is a part of life and we need to trust women when they say they need to rest during this crucial time of the month. This will help in a more collaborative, supportive and inclusive culture at the company,” the blog said.

Echoing the sentiment, Rajan, an aerial photographer, concurred, “We should not restrict ourselves to only worshipping goddesses and celebrating festivals like Raja. In fact, we must go beyond and actually recognize the issues related to menstrual health and hygiene so that we have a healthier society. And only when we understand and empathize, we would be free as a society and grow.”