I Buy Kegs for the Office. Do I Have to Buy Tampons, Too?

[conuly]

I run a small but growing start-up and employ many young female employees. As is standard for the start-up world, we buy kitchen items for our staff, including snacks, beer and wine, paper towels and facial tissues. We have a board in the break area that we use to remind me what items we are getting low on.

My employees keep putting feminine sanitary items on that board. I quizzed building maintenance and found that these items are for sale in all the ladies’ restrooms for 25 cents each. Should I be buying these items with corporate money, and how can I justify it one way or the other?

— Atlanta

How nice that you keep your staff well fed and with access to multiple booze options. While it is of course not necessary for workers to have access to Kind bars and hazy IPAs in the office, it is a nice way for you to show them that their happiness matters.

You know what is absolutely necessary for workers to have access to? Tampons and pads! Why are we having a conversation about how to justify the cost of necessary hygiene products when kegs and chardonnay are considered essential!

Now, I’m sure you pay your employees handsomely, Atlanta (and that you’ve made very sure that there’s no pay gap between your male and female staffers), so it’s probably true that paying 25 cents a tampon is not cost-prohibitive for any of them. It is also true that the realization that you don’t have a quarter and your period has come a day early is among the worst feelings in the world.

Your well-compensated employees also could surely afford their own snacks, but you have made the wise decision that offering some options is a cheap and easy way to make people more satisfied at work. Now you want to undo all that good will by telling a significant portion of those people that you can’t “justify” the cost of products they need for their physical health. A box of 96 tampons will run you 15 bucks at Costco, which is a small price to pay to not look like a total jerk.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/19/business/kegs-vs-tampons-hmm-tough-one.html

Comments

[conuly]

How do you justify this? "My employees kept asking for it, and I thought it was a reasonable expense."

NOT THAT HARD, BUDDY.

Man, you just *know* this is a man without any sisters.

[lilysea]

Also: if they want a purely business-case scenario:

this means people who menstruate don't have to run to the supermarket and therefore lose working hours.

Also: making your employees feel appreciated helps retain them, whereas recruiting new employees costs $$$$ to $$,$$$.

[staranise]

Probably one of those dudes who thinks you can hold in period blood the way you can hold in pee.

[conuly]

Not that holding your pee for extended periods of time is a good idea either.

[movingfinger]

I like "young female employees." GUESS WHAT! Not-so-young female employees need these too!

And no, this does not mean you put a basket of condoms in the men's toilets.

What a clueless jerk. "Corporate money" is fine to spend on alcohol but not tampons and pads.

[beable]

eh, it’s a dudebro startup.
they probably don't have any female employees over 30 because they probably consider older employees who may have priorities (e.g. kids, aging parents, non-work hobbies, volunteer commitments) outside the office to be a poor cultural fit.

i remember a letter writer on ask a manager a couple of years ago who was angry because the 30-something non drinking woman he and his team had deliberately pushed out (they were a “close knit team in their twenties who loved craft beer”) had referred to the environment as toxic in her exit interview and he wrote in to Alison whining that she shouldn’t have been there in the first place because she was a poor cultural fit.

[conuly]

How many new ones did he get ripped?

[beable]

Alison was kind but blunt in telling him how in the wrong he was.

Pretty much all of the AAM regulars were also pretty candid on the front.

A later update showed that he worked for an awesome company that supports good workplace practices (he and his entire team ended up fired after the investigation launched by the exit interview after their HR discovered the true extent of the problems - which were more than the initial letter mentioned). LW did some therapy and decided he wasnt suited to management and realizes he screwed up which is something but I didnt get the impression he realizes why he screwed up, just that he managed badly.

[conuly]

At least he seems to have learned that management is not the place for him.

[kukla_red]

I remember that letter! Totally clueless guy.

[delight]

Why are we having a conversation about how to justify the cost of necessary hygiene products when kegs and chardonnay are considered essential!

I love that this was in the actual text of the response.

[beable]

me too!

[minoanmiss]

I just rolled my eyes so hard one nearly popped out. I guess at least he asked, finally, instead of continuing to dismiss this most important of requests?

[ayebydan]

At least he is asking. He has hit the low bar. Now yes, tampons and pads >> beer. Also, where the heck gives their staff beer as they work? Fancy tea, coffee and biscuits (cookies?) I can get but o.O

[azurelunatic]

I am From Tech and in my experience it's mostly consumed at post-work gatherings of the sort where you knock off a little early on Friday and debrief over a beer. However I'm also from mature company tech, and startups are sometimes licentious beasts (to the detrimental of those there).

[jadelennox]

I absolutely hate that all of the tech companies I've worked at keep beer in the fridge. At my current job, it's paid for by the company (which I loathe) but for consumption after hours. At my prior job, the beer was paid for by the employees, but the company paid for a dedicated full-size beer fridge, and the beer drinking employees were shitty bros.

And yes, at some of those companies things got incredibly sketchy.

[kukla_red]

I used to work for a tech start-up in SoHo in NYC, housed in one of the many WeWork offices around town. Total bro culture, reinforced by the WeWork setup. Every floor has at least 3 beers on tap in the common area there and the refrigerator in our office was fully stocked with more beer, wine, hard cider, hard lemonade... you get the drift. The "rule" was no drinking before 5 PM, but at 5 on the dot every day one of the devs (I was the product manager and managed a team of 8 developers) would start the drinking and one by one, they would all join in, along with our way too young CEO. Next, out came the video game consoles and the wall-mounted monitors all switched from our daily stats to whatever alien shoot em up game was currently in favor.

Alcohol was the dominant theme.