Open plan offices are sold as the answer to collaboration, creativity and better communication. For many autistic employees, they are one of the hardest places to work. We first wrote this during Autism Acceptance Month, and it is still worth asking every April: who is your office really designed for?
Below we look at where open plan layouts let autistic people down, and the practical changes employers can make.
Sensory overload: too much noise, too much stress
A busy open plan floor is full of sensory input. Constant chatter, phones ringing, keyboards clattering, people walking past, bright overhead lighting. Many autistic people process sensory information differently, and the National Autistic Society explains how over-sensitivity to sound, light or movement can quickly lead to sensory overload.
Try threading a needle while a dozen conversations happen around you. That is close to what a normal afternoon can feel like. Over weeks and months, the effort of filtering it all out adds up to stress, anxiety and, too often, burnout. The very features that make open plan offices good for spontaneous collaboration make them hard environments for autistic staff.
No privacy and nowhere to recover
In an open office, every movement and conversation is on show. Many autistic people do their best work somewhere quiet, and need a place to step away and recharge after a period of intense focus or social contact. In most open plan offices that place doesn’t exist.
Without it, people have two choices: push through and pay for it later, or leave the building. Neither helps anyone do good work. We go into this in more depth in why every office needs a quiet area.
Social pressure and feeling like an outsider
Open plan layouts assume that impromptu chats and casual interaction are what make a team productive. For autistic employees, that expectation can be tiring. Autistic people often communicate differently, and constant, unstructured socialising built around unwritten neurotypical rules can leave them feeling like outsiders in their own team.
The pressure to fit in also pushes many people to mask, which takes a lot of energy and is linked to exhaustion. The problem here is the environment and the expectations, not the person.
Adjustments that make a real difference
Most fixes are simple and cheap. Employers can:
- create designated quiet areas or bookable rooms for focused work and recovery
- offer flexible arrangements, such as hybrid working or adjusted hours to avoid the busiest times
- allow noise-cancelling headphones and adjustable or softer lighting at desks
- let people choose a fixed desk away from walkways instead of hot-desking
These are all forms of reasonable adjustments for autistic employees, and many autistic people also do well working from home for part of the week. The key is asking each person what helps, rather than guessing.
Building understanding across the team
Adjustments work best when colleagues understand why they exist. Training helps teams see sensory and communication differences as normal variation, not awkwardness or rudeness, and it clears up myths about autism. Our overview of autism in the workplace is a good place to start.
It also helps to give everyone, autistic or not, a simple way to share how they work best. A working styles guide makes that conversation easier.
Using technology well
Technology can take some of the pressure off. Clear written communication through chat platforms means people aren’t relying on overheard conversations to stay in the loop. Speech-to-text tools, visual schedules and shared task boards can make work easier to plan and track. Agreeing team norms, such as when instant replies are expected and when they are not, protects focus time for everyone.
Designing offices for everyone
Open plan offices aren’t going away. That makes it more important to design them with autistic and other neurodivergent staff in mind from the start. Quiet space, sensory choice and flexibility tend to improve the office for everyone, including people who would never think to ask.
How Enna can help
If you want to know how well your office and policies work for neurodivergent staff, our neuroinclusion audits review your environment, processes and culture and give you a clear plan. For managers who want practical guidance on adjustments, our Reasonable Adjustments: Putting It Into Practice workshop is a good fit.
Where an individual employee is finding the office hard, a workplace needs assessment pinpoints the changes that will help. You can also book a call with our team to talk through where to start.
