Potenziell furchtbare Tage

The End of Exploitation – Revolutionizing the Workplace with Menstrual Health and Anti-Work

Potentially dreadful days: how work and menstruation are interconnected. For eight years, Bianca Jankovska explored firsthand what happens when the menstrual cycle and the associated pains collide with wage labor dependency. One meltdown moment followed another. Our performance-driven society forces us to drag ourselves to work despite recurring monthly pain and sometimes illness symptoms – often under the influence of medication if necessary. Menstrual leave or cycle-oriented work time management do not exist in Germany and Austria. To be honest: in the capitalist patriarchy we live in, they sound more like utopia than achievable accomplishments. Furthermore, the prevailing work structures exploit not only menstruators but also those with mental illnesses, marginalized individuals – and the environment – making them sick. Therefore, something urgently needs to change! How? By sabotaging our current work system and implementing an anti-work feminism – completely without period glitter and hot water bottle merchandise.

This book is the opposite of what goes on at LinkedIn. There are no tips for job interviews here – and no guilt if you have no milestones to announce at the end of the year. Anti-work does not mean never working again. The idea behind it is rather that we as a society free ourselves from harmful work obligations and stop exploiting ourselves or feeling bad when we cannot (or choose not to) work. Bianca Jankovska combines personal anecdotes with structural issues and compellingly discusses therapy in capitalism, PMS and PMDS, privilege checks, experiences of termination, shame, guilt, and pain. In strikingly simple terms, she outlines solutions and perspectives for a healthier work environment.