What autism can teach us about effective office environments…

 

A lot has been written lately on the return to the office after extended periods working-from-home due to the COVID-19 global pandemic.  The question of whether many jobs can be performed on a work-from-home basis has been answered in the affirmative; the actual need to work from an office is being debated.  Some voices are clearly pro-office and champion a return to the old ways of working whilst others are anti-office and are resisting moves to force people back. 

Arguments for the return to the office cite collaboration and productivity benefits, and this may be true for a portion of the workforce, or for a portion of a person’s routine working week.  Putting research conducted by Harvard that challenges the link between being in an open-plan office and increased collaboration aside (Stillman 2018), it is easy to imagine groups brainstorming ideas, or talking through problems face-to-face where communication is not only verbal, but non-verbal with subtle body-language cues.  There will be times in the working day when it is beneficial for people to get together and there will be synergistic outcomes.  Some argue that workers will feed off each other’s energy.  The strength of the argument for the return to offices may depend on the nature of work these workers are performing – essentially the dichotomy of collaboration and concentration.  The design of the office is another important factor and needs to reflect the nature of the work people are doing, and be flexible and able to adapt.  Offices need collaboration space and concentration space – and the ratio must match the work being performed. People, I am reliably informed, are generally social creatures and like to be around one another and prolonged isolation is bad for your mental health; however, people have varying needs for socialisation and for the autistic whilst the need for social interaction may as strong as it is with neurotypical people, their cup is small and fills quickly and they can be left overwhelmed.  Regardless of where an individual sits on the spectrum, the office environment can provide people that are socially isolated or who live alone much needed human contact.

Getty Images https://www.inc.com/jessica-stillman/new-harvard-study-you-open-plan-office-is-making-your-team-less-collaborative.html

Those against the return to the office may take a more cynical stance and argue that it is about the control of workers and a failure to trust that people can work unsupervised.  Clearly there is a lot at stake for business owners, who may be paying rent on thousands of square metres of empty or underutilised real estate.  There is also a lot at stake for the businesses that support office workers, the coffee shops and eateries, the hair salons and other retailers that feed off a captive flock of customers tied to the business districts in a 9 to 5 grind.  One of the obvious benefits for people working from home is the removal of the stressful commute in polluting traffic, which is bad for the health of people and the planet. This may be a significant factor in a large metropolis with a daily one-hour or more commute each way, ten times a week. Working from home allows flexibility for workers to balance work and other commitments, whilst still getting the job done.  It means you can make that doctor’s appointment or go to a child’s assembly and make up the time when you return.  We should distinguish between commitment to a job and having measurable and tangible performance targets as opposed to commitment to being somewhere on a 9 to 5 basis and being seen to punch a clock.

I thought I would jump into the debate, from an autistic and personal perspective. As an autistic person, I have felt more productive and less stressed working-from-home during times of pandemic lockdown.  The return to an office, after re-setting and adjusting to a new routine working-from-home, triggered my fight-or flight response and my stress levels went through the roof. It was near impossible being in the office so I started to question what is it about the workplace that I find so challenging?

Autistic people are known to have sensory issues and environmental stimuli may trigger an emotional meltdown.  Everyday sensory stimuli that might go unnoticed by neurotypical folk may be enough to trigger the fight or flight response in the autistic.  We understand our world through our senses, and when our senses are overwhelmed life can be uncomfortable at best, unbearable and intolerable at worst.

In an office environment we might be talking about the tapping of a keyboard, a cough, a sneeze, the sound of cutlery on a plate, eating, slurping, sipping, crunching, talking, laughing, whistling.  Noise, particularly in an open plan office environment, is a huge issue for all people (neurotypical and neurodiverse).  For the autistic, noise can induce pain. Libby Sanders, assistant professor of organisational behaviour at Bond University, as quoted in Wynne (2021), conducted a study and concluded that working in a noisy open-plan office environment reduced a person’s ability to concentrate and increased levels of stress in workers, leading to a negative change in mood.  This was a study of neurotypical people so whatever the findings, you would need to multiply the results to understand the impact on the neurodiverse with an increased sensitivity to stimuli.

The environmental stimuli triggering the neurodiverse might be the smell of a person returning from the gym without showering; the smell of someone’s lunch.  Perhaps the smell of soap or deodorant or perfume is a trigger.  The choice of cleaning chemicals used may also have an effect on occupants.  Typically, and anecdotally, this smell-sensitivity is explained through allergies; however, often it is an autistic sensitivity.

The environmental trigger might be the temperature of the office – it could be too hot or too cold.  The movement of air may be too strong, or not fast enough.  The air may blow where it is not wanted; the sensation of hot or cold air on your head may be uncomfortable to the point of distraction or pain.

The quality of light and the colour of the light and the nature of the light are potential environmental triggers for the neurodiverse.  Fluorescent lighting is a known trigger for many on the spectrum and can cause migraines and some autistic people are so sensitive to noise the humming sound of the tubes can cause so much distraction the person is unable to concentrate and work. 

The spatial relationship between the individual’s space, group space and circulation space are a factor in the level of comfort workers feel, particularly in an open plan environment where boundaries are not defined by walls.  People moving around, invading one’s apparent personal space - which varies from person to person, can be a great distraction to people, particularly the autistic.  The close physical proximity of people can cause great anxiety.  In caveman times this level of vigilance ensured survival of the species, with some of the group specializing in looking out for danger in the form of rival tribes or sabre-tooth tigers.  Others would hunt down mammoths, establish camps and nurture and raise the next generation.  As a group, it worked then – having diversity within the group – and it should work now. Heightened sensory-awareness can be thought to be part of the evolutionary process.

Knight, Charles. R. Le Moustier. 1920 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caveman

People exist on a spectrum – the neurotypical majority (99%) and the neurodiverse minority (1%); however, the office is designed for the sensory comfort of the “typical” person.  One example of this is air conditioning, which might be set in a range of 22 – 24 degrees Celsius, with humidity control and air movement all set within the requirements of building Codes and Standards.  These requirements may also be written into a lease agreement, with recourse to the tenants for non-compliance by the landlord.  But what are these “Codes and Standards”?  Essentially a group of people have got together to decide the rules by which we should all live – how our environments must be designed.  This is great for the majority, but not so great for the minority.  Additionally, there are other rules in office design that relate to lighting levels, acoustic performance, materials selections, toilet facilities, occupation densities, widths of passageways… I could go on but I think I have made my point.  The rules intended to inform design for the majority exclude design for the minority, the neurodiverse.

My position is that if workplace designs were more flexible and able to better accommodate the autistic then not only would the neurotypical majority still be comfortable, they would be more comfortable. 

Action can be taken by individuals, designers and employers; however, often it is left to the individual to manage their triggers and sensory inputs.  Head phones are the weapon of choice for the autistic and essential in dulling noises that would otherwise distract the worker and for many it is the only way they can function.  A small desk fan may provide cooling air movement across your face when the office environment may be insufficient and a welcome by-product is the noise of the fan which can help mask background noise and make the environment more tolerable.  In an office environment I have witnessed the use of prescription glasses and sun visors to address problems with glare.  Unfortunately, the individual is limited in what they can do and what they can control.  The ideal situation, which we should work towards, would be that individuals need not take any action to feel comfortable in an office environment, with the result being a fully inclusive workplace.

The designers of office environments have a significant influence on outcomes for the neurotypical and the neurodiverse with every design decision.  Commercial pressures may make it attractive to cram as many people in an office as possible; however, this needs to be balanced with the need for space to work comfortably – in a physical and sensory sense.  Higher densities may improve the bottom line but will erode a person’s wellbeing and productivity.  The layout – the way the space functions - is critical.  People need collaboration space if they need to collaborate – and they need concentration space if they need to concentrate.  The balance between these two spaces needs to be designed and fit a person’s job description.  Acoustic performance is another critical factor and the design must suit the office function – for example, in an accounting firm you might want a low background noise to reduce distractions and improve concentration; in a call-centre the background noise may be higher to mask individual conversations and speech intelligibility is a priority.  Density, layout and materials selections will all impact the acoustic performance of a space.  Lighting is important, and as individuals have varying sensitivities to light, colour and glare, some flexibility and an ability to control task lighting is essential.

Employers arguably have the greatest influence as they engage the designers of work places and through policies and practices dictate how people work.  Employers design job descriptions and find people to perform roles in a prescribed manner.  However, whilst a job description might be rigid, there may be many ways of getting the job done.  Different people bring various strengths and good employers will harness their human resources strengths rather than try to mould employees to perform in a certain way.  The value that the autistic can bring to particular jobs is gaining wider acceptance.  Several companies, particularly in the technology space, have programs targeting the neurodiverse for the value they can bring.  These companies use an atypical and extended recruitment process to hire the highly-skilled or people with great potential that would not pass the traditional interview process.  Once employed, additional accommodations may be required to get the best performance from people.  These accommodations might include flexible work arrangements with employees working remotely or from home some of the time.  Employers can structure management processes tailored to individuals – for example you might agree on a way of working and how performance will be assessed.  Workplace culture is important – the autistic person may not fit in with the wider group and that should be okay.  Team building and social activities with group interaction can be very challenging for the autistic and they should have the option of opting out and not made to feel like social pariahs for not fitting in.  I can recall clearly not attending a day time staff function that was totally non-work related and my punishment was that all the staff that went would divert their phones to me.  This is not okay, it felt like punishment for not fitting in.  In the open-plan office there are numerous distractions which impact on the work of staff – management can reduce some of these distractions by requiring that meetings be held in meeting rooms or separated break out spaces and not at desks in proximity to people trying to concentrate.  If someone is having a conversation near me, I find it impossible to concentrate and often I’ll have to walk away, which reduces my productivity and extends my working hours.  Ultimately employers decide how many staff will occupy a work place and a densely packed office will cause issues for the neurotypical and the neurodiverse.

In summary it’s about accommodation and flexibility and allowing all people to find ways in which they can perform at their best.

It’s about finding the right balance for an individual – I am very lucky to have a supportive employer and am able to balance the positives from working from home and working in an office.

Its about control of your environment to suit an individuals’ sensory preferences.

…the autistic can be considered as spatial test pilots…

Ultimately the autistic can be considered as spatial test pilots, navigating workplaces and finding issues at the edge of human sensory experience.  Once the issues are understood solutions can be found and the autistic can play a role in this process; collectively we have an opportunity to make things better for all. 

 

Samuel Fardoe

25 September, 2021

 

References

Stillman, Jessica. “New Harvard Study: Your Open-Plan Office Is Making Your Team Less Collaborative.” Inc.Com, July 09, 2018. https://www.inc.com/jessica-stillman/new-harvard-study-you-open-plan-office-is-making-your-team-less-collaborative.html

Wynne, Emma. “Talking, beeping, ringing phones: Research show open-plan offices really do increase stress.” ABC New, July 07, 2021. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-07-12/how-open-plan-offices-affect-stress-levels/100278842