Cafe owner slammed over ‘humiliating’ idea for his staff working on their period

A cafe owner has come under fire after explaining that he wants his employees to wear a red sticker at work while they have their period to let people know it’s ‘that time of the month’

It’s no secret that periods can be an intense and emotional time, but it’s not necessarily something you want to tell everyone you meet about. However, if one cafe owner had his way, it would be something all his customers and staff knew about, as he’d like to make employees on their period wear a sticker.

The cafe owner, known only as Anthony, spoke on the Australian radio show, Kyle and Jackie O, to discuss his controversial proposal that female staff who are experiencing ‘that time of the month’ should wear a red sticker. He claims the idea started after he had a problem with a colleague who was having “women’s issues”.

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Anthony told the radio hosts that the woman was “emotionally stressed and hormonal” and he wanted it to be obvious to everyone that she needed “extra space”.

He said: “We had an issue between two staff that developed in front of customers, and we’ve got an outsourced HR company that we use. And the outcome resulted in the female staff member explaining that her reaction was due to women’s issues and she was emotionally stressed and hormonal and all of that.

“So in order to avoid that, we thought it would be a good idea to wear a red sticker if you’re going through a period and just need a bit of understanding or space.”

Kyle then asked what size the sticker would be, while Jackie O was appalled by the idea.

She audibly gasped before asking Anthony to clarify what he actually meant and why he’d want customers to know this information.

Anthony added: “Well, the way I see the whole thing is, if someone is learning to drive a car right, they stick an L-plate on the car. That’s not for their benefit, it’s for the people around them to give them some space and not toot the horn, and stress the person out. So it’s the same idea, just for women’s issues.”

Jackie branded the idea “humiliating” while radio listeners said it was “insensitive” and one called Anthony a “misogynist hardcore dude”.

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