News / NexusArc

CD Projekt Introduced Menstrual Leave in 2023—What the Policy Covers

The company later received a diversity and inclusion award for the program, which remains listed among employee wellbeing benefits in current job materials.

By NexusArc Staff Published Mar 31, 2023 Updated Aug 5, 2026 444 words

Current status

CD PROJEKT says the policy was implemented in April 2023 and provides one additional day off each month for an employee experiencing painful menstruation. The initiative later received recognition in a Polish diversity, equity, and inclusion competition, and menstrual leave remains listed in current CD PROJEKT RED job benefits.

CD Projekt Red expanded workplace support

CD Projekt Red, the Polish video game developer and publisher, recently announced that it will offer menstrual leave to its female employees. The move is aimed at promoting gender equality and supporting the health and well-being of its female workforce.

The Jivaro source covered CD Projekt Red’s move to offer menstrual leave to female employees, a policy aimed at giving staff more flexibility when period-related symptoms affect work. In the game industry, where crunch and rigid production schedules have often shaped labor conversations, that kind of policy stood out.

The move followed broader discussion around workplace benefits, gender equity, and the need for healthier production cultures inside studios. It also connected CD Projekt Red’s main studio to similar support previously associated with other parts of the CD Projekt group.

Why this stood out in games

Game studios compete for talent, but benefits are not only recruiting language. They shape whether people can stay in demanding creative and technical roles without burning out. Menstrual leave is a specific benefit, but the larger subject is whether studios are willing to acknowledge health needs that have historically been treated as private inconveniences rather than workplace realities.

For CD Projekt Red, the policy arrived as the company was still rebuilding trust after Cyberpunk 2077’s difficult launch and the intense scrutiny around its production culture. A labor-focused benefit could not solve every workplace concern, but it did give employees another form of support inside a high-pressure industry.

A signal for broader studio policy

The policy also put pressure on other studios to think beyond standard vacation and sick leave. Flexibility, remote work, mental health support, parental leave, and condition-specific accommodations all matter in an industry that depends on long production cycles and specialized teams.

Not every studio will copy the same policy. Local labor laws, company size, and workplace norms differ. But the CD Projekt Red move became part of a broader conversation about how game companies can make employee health less dependent on informal manager discretion.

The NexusArc read

This story belongs in gaming news because it is about the people who make games, not only the products they ship. Better workplace policy does not guarantee better games, but healthier teams are part of a more sustainable industry. CD Projekt Red’s menstrual leave policy was one concrete example of that shift.