The digital storefront GOG, formerly known as Good Old Games, recently announced that it will offer its employees menstrual leave, allowing anyone suffering from excessive period pain or other complications extra time off. It makes the studio one of the first companies in the games industry to offer such a benefit to its staff. Its parent company, CD Projekt Red, is also looking into providing similar leave options.
As first spotted by Axios, the Poland-based company announced on LinkedIn April 1 that it was going to start offering extra paid time off for all affected employees. A GOG spokesperson told Axios they estimate this will amount to an extra day per quarter for employees who take advantage of the time off. But also told the outlet that staff members are free to take more time off “whenever period pains occur.” Employees can also choose to just take a few hours’ leave rather than full days.
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“Menstrual Leave fosters inclusiveness by accepting that there are biological differences in the workplace,” GOG wrote in the LinkedIn post announcing the new plan. “By giving additional days off for those experiencing menstrual period pain, we acknowledge these symptoms are real.”
Implementing Menstrual Leave is yet another step towards making GOG an even more inclusive workplace, and we won’t stop in our continuous efforts to learn, reflect and improve on how we can do better for all of our team members.
GOG’s culture and communication manager Gabriela Siemienkowicz told Axios that the new policy is “experimental” and that the company would evaluate throughout 2022 how these additional days off “impact the well-being” of GOG employees. After that, the storefront may “expand the policy” next year, though there are no details as to what that may entail.
Kotaku has reached out to GOG for comment.
Siemienkowicz also told Axios that the policy was inspired by her own experiences and that during a “Women of GOG” meeting she brought the topic up and found other employees had similar stories and experiences.
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“We shared the same view on this matter,” said Siemienkowicz. “And would appreciate the possibility to simply lay down and take most of the day off without sacrificing one of the regular paid absence days we have available throughout the year.”
GOG’s parent company, CD Projekt Red, told PC Gamer that it is also looking into adopting a similar policy in the future.