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Genius Company Offers "First Day Of Period Leave" To Women And We Want To Apply

by Macy Daniela Martin
Trinette Reed

Periods are the pits no matter where you live, and one company in India is trying to make things easier on its employees who menstruate by offering a "First Day of Period Leave" for that wretched first day.

Between the cramps, the bloating, and the unpredictable mood swings, the last thing anyone wants to do is work on day one of their cycle.

While the jury's still out on whether or not period brain is real (a new study says it isn't), many people feel... a certain way during that time of the month, and it's usually a little less productive due to the harsh symptoms.

Enter Culture Machine, the digital video company based in Mumbai that gets it.

Culture Machine allows women employed by their company to take off work the first day of their period.

In a recent video uploaded to their YouTube channel, Blush, executives at Culture Machine explain their reasoning behind the inclusive and compassionate corporate decision to implement First Day of Period Leave (FOP).

"We wanted to make sure that our colleagues feel appreciated," said Venkat Prasad, co-founder and COO/CTO of Culture Machine. "In a society like in India, where ground reality of women empowerment is still a talk, we wanted to walk the talk."

The world needs more bosses like Venkat.

Also featured in the short-but-uplifting video are a few of Culture Machine's 75 women employees in Mumbai, who are surprised with the news after detailing some of the annoying things their non-menstruating coworkers love to say each month.

Some of their comments include, "Oh, beware of this one," and "PMS is something that's in your head." LOL.

Women employees were obviously super stoked about FOP.

YouTube

"I think that's damn cool in the sense that, 'Hey, this is good enough reason for you to not come to work,'" one woman said. "I think more places should have that," she continued.

Culture Machine is trying to make that a reality with an empowering Change.org petition.

They say, "We want a FOP Leave to be made available for women all over India, irrespective of where they work."

PREACH.