it’s time to die
While large-scale change is always slow, we’ve seen the gaming industry move for the better with workers’ rights over the past few years. While most of these conversations have focused on overtime and out-of-home workplace abusers, new conversations about menstrual leave have emerged through GOG (which stands for Good Old Games), the media digital distribution platform, and a subsidiary of CD Projekt.
“We’re excited to announce that, starting today, we’ll be implementing menstrual leave for all GOG employees who are menstruating,” the company said in a LinkedIn post. PC Gamer reached out to CD Projekt’s PR director, Radek Grabowski, to ask if the policy would also apply to GOG’s parent company, to which he replied, “GOG is leading this initiative, and we’re doing further research for CD Projekt as a whole.”
GOG’s Culture and Communications Manager Gabriela Siemienkowicz led the initiative to implement the menstrual leave policy. Siemienkowicz told Axios that the company estimates that employees who use furloughs will take “an additional day off each quarter,” although they may take time off as needed.
RED ladies – a pleasure to work with you!happy #international women’s day pic.twitter.com/pxbiUvZ2fB
— CD PROJEKT RED (@CDPROJEKTRED) March 8, 2020
A larger discussion about menstrual leave has been brewing across all industries for months, with some raising concerns about the policies, some seeing them as controversial. Axios said the main concern was that those who took time off would be considered “less competent”.
It’s really a shame that it should even be an issue in the first place, especially when women are already struggling to prove themselves as game industry employees because those dealing with menstruation know how necessary time off work is. This move is an important step towards providing employees with a more inclusive and rewarding work-life balance as workers continue to put their health first.
Given how influential CD Projekt is in the gaming industry, offering menstrual leave could set a good precedent for other industries — and now hopefully it starts to catch on elsewhere.
