In this episode of Pause for Thought, I sit down with Jules Stafford, the Wellbeing Lead (Staff) for the University of Canterbury (UC), to talk about maintaining momentum on the UC in-house menopause movement over the past two years.
Before taking up the Wellbeing Lead role, Jules was the Operations Manager and HR Manager in the Faculty of Engineering at UC for over 18 years. She emigrated to Christchurch from Newcastle in the UK in 1995 and has a Postgraduate Certificate in Strategic Leadership from UC and a Diploma in Positive Psychology and Wellbeing. Jules lives with her partner, 5 cats and 3 horses on a small lifestyle block of the edge of Christchurch.
Jules’ own awful experience with menopause led her, along with four amazing colleagues, to establish the ‘Ruahinetanga: Menopause at Work Programme’ at UC which was launched two years ago on 18 October 2021, World Menopause Day. She is a passionate menopause advocate and regularly shares UC’s journey and experiences to encourage other employers to introduce Menopause Programmes in their workplaces.
In this conversation, Jules and I talk about:
- How Jules came to be the menopause movement ‘fire starter’ at UC
- Two years on, which initiatives have had the biggest impact?
- What have been the tricky bits?
- The unexpected wins and ripples? and
- What challenges and opportunities lie ahead in Year Three.
PLUS we answer a range of questions from our audience.
To find out about future Pause for Thought conversations please join the Menopause @ Work (NZ) LinkedIn Community where we work to enrich, elevate and amplify the workplace conversation about peri/menopause/te ruahinetanga:
Be safe and well.
