#you literally don't treat any of our other female co workers like how you treat me which one is good for them and two like leave me alone | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

jessthequeenofstories · 5 years

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Backstory:

I work for a well-known fast food franchise in the UK. In our crew room, we have lockers that contain:

- Deodorant

- Body spray (male and female)

- Plasters

- Vinegar (???)

All these items are provided by the store for their employees to use, and are topped up whenever they run out. Apparently, these are all more important than sanitary towels.

I've heard it many times where I've been on shift and a female employee will go around every female in the store and try and find one who has sanitary products in their bag, because she herself doesn't have any right now. It's disgusting that women literally have to go around begging other workers for a tampon!

If you are wondering why women don't just buy some, here's some things to consider:

- Sanitary products are EXPENSIVE! While ranting to my male co-workers about this problem today, I asked them how much they thought a pack of sanitary towels cost. They all said £1. Spoiler alert: it's usually about £2.50, and up to £4 for the top branded ones (which tend to be comfier and cause less friction rashes.)

- We can be forgetful. Just like not all men are good at remembering things, neither are all women. We are just as forgetful and clumsy as anyone else. Forgetting to shove products into our bags is a very common mistake. We're only human.

- Periods aren't always regular. Some women can go months without bleeding, and some don't have long breaks between them. Not all women have regular and predictable cycles, so it's easy to forget about periods when they haven't bothered you in a while and you have more important things to be stressing about.

- We sometimes just run out! If we're bleeding heavily and only packed a few pads/tampons, then then our supply can run out in just a few hours. Some women bleed to hard they have to change their products once an hour! And thick pads are bulky and take up a lot of room, and to hide them in the inside zipper pocket of your bag means that you can only fit 1 or 2.

- Night shifts exist! The shops are closed, so we can't just nip out to buy some!

- We can't rely on others for help. Put simply, you forgot to pack pads. Guess what? So did every other women in store. Bonus: Sometimes you are the only female on the shift, so it's be a miracle for a male employee to have one in his bag (you never know, though! Kudos to thoughtful men/boyfriends!)

Basically, there are many reasons why a woman might start her period during a shift and be left bleeding into her knickers and trousers with no products to help.

My experience: Night shift, I was the only female on shift, it was a quiet night so didn't get chance to ask any females who were out drinking that night, all the shops were closed, and I'm forgetful. Combo!!

Results: Embarrassment, odour, slow movement to compensate for the friction/moisture rash burning 9on my thighs, avoiding bending down or walking past co-workers who were sat on the floor shifting through cupboards, discomfort, anger, wanting to cry from it all, and generally the worst shift on my career. Yeah, this shift was worse than the ones where I had food/abuse thrown at me, my butt grabbed, and when a customer bled all over the store from being beaten to a pulp and I had to clean it up. My own blood was worse.

Here's the thing: Emergency Menstruation Stations exist in a few places. My university campus has two, one in the library and one in the student union store, and the uni keeps it stocked up. They have been huge successes, and the females on campus absolutely praise them to high heaven. I often see women pass them as they walk down the corridors with their friends, and they will stop, rummage through their bags, and drop the spare pads/tampons they have in their bags in the Station for others to use. The university provides most of the products, but we women also help run it as a way to say thank you. And the best part: you are free to take as many products from the Station as you need.

You would expect people to take all of them or loads, but no. At most, people take one to use now, and put a spare in their bag, and that's it. Women are not selfish like that because they understand and are thankful that they are being treated with dignity and are made to feel more human.

So, look. Humiliation, rashes, odour, embarrassment, stained clothes, slowed movement, emotional turmoil, guilt... These are just some of the things that happen to you if you don't have products. Women should not be forced to work while experiencing this! Surely, it is cheaper for workplaces to pay for a £2.50 pack of pads once a month, instead of letting someone go home early so they can clean themselves up?

There are so many fights at the moment about tampon tax, and providing products to those affected by poverty, and I applaud those battles and support them. But I would like to add this to the fight. It may not be a solution, but it's a damn good start!

If you agree, then please sign the petition! It doesn't matter if you are male or female, it is obvious that the place you work at can afford £2.50 a month to help support its female staff, you put your name down and help make a difference!

Thank you all for reading and for sharing this! ♥️

TL;DR: Workplaces should provide and maintain an Emergency Menstruation Station for female staff members who don't have products while in their shift.

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ch-sy · 5 years

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It's taken me like 6 years to realize that some men just really ain't shit

I haven't been able to talk about this to anyone in my RL about this because of my social circle and knowing it would cause a bad situation to spiral out worse but I gotta go off sis..

So, almost like 2 years ago I was living in a rented house with my boyfriend and our two roommates (who were also guys.) ONE of these roommates was really chill and like, minded his own business and didn't cause any shit or anything. My boyfriend and I were really comfortable living with him pretty much right off. But the 2nd one was literally one of the most twisted, conniving motherfuckers I have ever had the misfortune of crossing paths with in my entire life. Just for starters, we didn't know this guy had killed someone before. A really long story short, his house had been broken into before because someone found out he had a safe in it with like 10k stashed. So they tried robbing him in the middle of the night-- he winded up shooting one of them and killing the guy. Anyways, we didn't know about this until like 3 months after he had moved in.. well.. then he started acting really nice toward me and from my boyfriend's perspective on things, started either giving him the cold shoulder or he would almost be fakely nice to him.

This motherfucker spent like almost 5 months trying to drive a wedge between me and my boyfriend, he tried to get me fucked up on ecstasy when we went on a beach trip to try and take advantage of me while my boyfriend wasn't there because he was working all weekend. Once he realized he couldn't get me he literally got together with one of my BEST FRIENDS and coworkers to try and piss me off (it worked, but only because by then I knew exactly what he was doing and even tried warning her that he was.) She didn't listen, and once he realized that he wasn't getting to me he started treating her terrible and cheated on her cause he's a real winner. By the end of things, my boyfriend and I decided the living situation was entirely too toxic and we broke our lease just to get away from him. The scumbag waited until my boyfriend wasn't home one day working and I was off to have his friend come over and help him pack his shit up, while they were in his room lowkey yelling about shooting all of us over it. We got out of the house and thankfully, we haven't seen shitstick again. Thank u, next

So NOW.. we're in a living situation with my boyfriend's co-worker, who at first- once again, seemed really chill mind you. I met his wife long before we moved in and we all got along really well, I thought it would be nice to live with another chick too.. whatever.

Over the past few weeks, his wife and I have gotten really close with each other so she's started opening up to me when talking about things. She told me that she's never been in a situation where her husband acts so cruel and distant to her. That he's changed a lot just over the past few weeks--like so much to the point she says he's a completely different person and it's getting so bad that she's starting to want a divorce. She's starting to resent him for it.

New Year's this year, he got entirely too wasted and shoved her into the dirt out in our yard. Two guys who were over here got pissed and one of them swung on him for it (because you don't lay your hands on a female like that, especially not your wife?) Our roommate proceeded to call her his bitch while he was trying to fight these two friends of his (that are no longer his friend's after this incident, mind you.) It was a really fucked up night. I winded up threatening him and telling him if he ever hurt her again that I would do it to him and it was going to be 1000 times worse and had to console her to calm her down for like an hour.

He started acting right again for like a week, after that and then went back to treating his wife like shit. And me and her are really close now so everytime I see her upset over the shit he does, I get pissed off..

Something registered the other day from the incident with our first shitty roommate and I've started picking up on some things:

1. He didn't start acting this way until after we moved in (she's somewhat noticed this- my boyfriend has noticed this and thinks if we have anything to do with it, its that our roomie is jealous of our relationship because honestly we really do have an extremely stable one) like, for example: I get kinda annoyed when my boyfriend has to work late. I was never like that before but I'm 6 months pregnant and so, like.. I need him around more than ever right now. He's understanding of this and so a lot of the time when I ask for him to come home, he does. Our roommate came in one day after this happened and was like "how come it's that she gets mad when her man isn't home but mine doesn't give a shit- what is that?" And we just kinda laughed it off because I figured he was just making fun of me for bitching.. but like, he does it all the time and I've picked up on it a lot more.

He's constantly comparing me and his wife, he came in one day long before my boyfriend got off work because my boyfriend is a foreman so he usually has to stay later than the others, and was like "there's a bunch of beautiful women in MY house" and it kinda rubbed me wrong when he said it, but once again, I wrote it off as nothing.

By now, our roommate and his wife are fighting almost every night. He's started refusing to take care of their 7 month old child unless she bitches him out to or begs him to (and--that's your fucking child bro, nobody should have to beg you to take care of your little girl.) He's been lowkey doing things to like, assert his dominance over his wifw I guess. It's really fucked up, like one day me and my boyfriend were gonna drop her off at work cause her car is broke and a lot of the time she has to walk.. and one day when we offered, he winded up calling us to be like "im home now so don't worry about taking her, I got it" and then PROCEEDED TO MAKE HER WALK TO WORK CAUSE "IT WAS A NICE DAY" girl I wanted to punch him in his face right then once I found out. To top this all off, she thinks he might be cheating now.

It's just collectively a bunch of shit that can't be ignored and I don't know how to deal with it. It's not my relationship but it's starting to affect me and my boyfriend's because they work together and our roommate has been doing so much fucked up shit lately (and seeing how he treats his wife) makes me paranoid about my boyfriend even being around him. Not because I don't trust him, but because I don't trust our roommate anymore.

And now I'm highkey wondering if he's got some sort of bullshit thing for me because of what's happened before. It's like weird flex but ok but I'm being serious.

I don't know if I should tell my boyfriend that I think it might be a possibility and we need to move out or not. It's a catch 22 because I could tell him and possibly ruin their friendship and work relationship (maybe for just being paranoid) or I could just not say anything, wait it out and possibly allow my friend's relationship to deteriorate. I know it's not really my problem and regardless of any of it--if he's that kind of person, it won't last anyway because he's a shithead and his true colors are coming out..

Either way, this entire situation has got me stressed out as fuck, I don't feel comfortable living here anymore and I'm pregnant and shouldn't be dealing with anymore stress than I already have to. I dont know what to do or I'm supposed to do cause..

#i just needed to get it out honestly #ive been losing it over the past 3 days #but also help #i need unbiased opinion asap

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