Employers talk a lot about productivity and wellbeing, then put people in offices that work against both. The open-plan office is the obvious example. It was sold as collaborative and modern, but for many people it’s noisy and draining, with nowhere to go when they need to focus or recover.
For neurodivergent employees, including people with ADHD, autism, dyslexia, dyspraxia and others, having nowhere quiet to go can be what tips them into burnout. And there are likely more neurodivergent people in your team than you realise. Quiet areas help everyone else too, from graduates to senior leaders.
Below, we set out the case for a quiet area, what goes wrong without one, and what a good one looks like.
The problem with open-plan offices
Open-plan offices were designed with good intentions. They promised more collaboration, better communication and a break from the cubicle culture of the 1980s and 1990s. It hasn’t worked out that way.
- A University of Sydney study of office workers found that sound privacy was the biggest source of dissatisfaction in open-plan offices.
- Harvard research found that moving to an open-plan office cut face-to-face interaction by around 70%, as employees turned to email and messaging to avoid interruptions.
For neurodivergent employees it’s often worse. Background noise, movement and constant interruptions can be exhausting and make focus very hard. With no quiet area, people end up masking their discomfort or just struggling on.
Why quiet areas are essential for neurodivergent employees
Neurodivergent brains often process the environment differently. Sensory sensitivity, executive functioning challenges and heightened stress responses can all be triggered by noisy, chaotic spaces. Here’s how quiet areas help:
1. Reducing sensory overload
For autistic employees or those with ADHD, loud conversations, phone calls and the constant buzz of office equipment can be overwhelming. A quiet room gives them somewhere to get away from it. Our guides to autism in the workplace and ADHD in the workplace explain more about sensory and attention differences at work.
2. Supporting focus and productivity
Neurodivergent employees may need uninterrupted time to work deeply on tasks. Quiet areas remove distractions and give employees space to manage their time and attention in ways that suit them.
3. Providing a safe space for regulation
Quiet areas are useful for more than work. People use them to decompress after a stressful meeting, regulate emotions or prepare for a presentation. Having somewhere to do that can help neurodivergent employees avoid burnout.
4. Encouraging disclosure and retention
When employees see that an office has been designed with inclusion in mind, they are more likely to feel safe disclosing their neurodivergence. It also gives people a reason to stay.
Why quiet areas benefit everyone
Quiet areas aren’t only for neurodivergent staff.
- Introverts recharge better in low-stimulation environments.
- Extroverts also need quiet zones when deep focus is required.
- Parents and carers appreciate having a calm space to regroup during stressful days.
- Leaders and managers often use quiet rooms for strategic thinking without distractions.
Prolonged exposure to noise is widely recognised as a source of stress, and quiet areas help reduce that pressure for all employees.
How the lack of quiet areas fails your employees
Without quiet spaces, a few things tend to happen:
- Lower productivity: Constant interruptions make it nearly impossible to get into a state of flow. Studies suggest it can take around 23 minutes to regain focus after an interruption.
- Higher stress and burnout: Without downtime or space to regulate, stress builds up and wellbeing declines.
- Exclusion of neurodivergent staff: Employees with sensory sensitivities may feel unsupported and start looking elsewhere.
- Reduced retention: Talented staff, neurodivergent and neurotypical, may look for organisations with environments better suited to focus and wellbeing.
- Damage to employer brand: In a competitive job market, candidates pay attention to how inclusive and supportive an organisation is.
We explore the wider business impact in the hidden cost of ignoring neurodiversity in the workplace.
What a good quiet area looks like
You don’t need an expensive redesign. A good quiet area usually has:
- Soundproofing: Acoustic panels, carpeting and noise-reducing doors help block background noise.
- Comfortable seating: Chairs and desks designed for longer focus periods.
- Lighting control: Soft, adjustable lighting rather than harsh fluorescent lights.
- Tech-friendly options: Power sockets, Wi-Fi and docking stations for laptops.
- Clear boundaries: Rules that define the quiet area as a no-chat, no-phone space.
Some organisations create several types of quiet space, for example single-user pods for total silence and shared quiet rooms with etiquette rules. For an individual employee, access to a quiet workspace can also be a simple reasonable adjustment. See our reasonable adjustment examples for managers for more ideas.
Virtual quiet spaces for hybrid work
Quiet areas don’t just matter in physical offices. In hybrid workplaces, employees often struggle with back-to-back video calls and blurred boundaries between home and work. Organisations can recreate the benefits of quiet areas virtually by:
- Encouraging camera-off focus hours during the week.
- Providing “no meeting” days to allow deep work.
- Offering access to AI productivity tools that help with focus and task management.
- Supporting employees to create distraction-free home setups, including providing equipment grants.
Protecting quiet time online matters as much as having a quiet room in the office. For more on this, read our guides to camera-on policies and reasonable adjustments and AI as assistive technology for neurodivergent employees.
Inclusive office design in practice
More and more organisations are building quiet booths, focus rooms and low-stimulation spaces into their offices, and many now mention them in job adverts as part of their employer brand.
Quiet space is fast becoming a standard part of good office design rather than an extra.
Why leaders should act now
With burnout a growing concern, a quiet area is a sensible thing to spend money on. The return looks like this:
- Higher productivity from fewer distractions.
- Lower turnover thanks to improved employee satisfaction.
- Reduced absence linked to stress and mental health.
- A stronger employer brand in a competitive recruitment market.
For neurodivergent employees, it could mean the difference between staying and leaving. For everyone else, it’s somewhere to think.
Final thoughts
A quiet area is a small change with a big effect. It tells employees their needs have been thought about, and it gives neurodivergent staff in particular somewhere to go when the office gets too much.
An office without one is losing focus, wellbeing and, sooner or later, good people.
How Enna can help
If you’re planning a redesign or a move to hybrid working, it’s worth getting an outside view first. Our neuroinclusion audits look at your workplace and tell you what to fix first. Our Neurodiversity Awareness for Managers training helps managers notice sensory barriers and do something about them.
For a quick read on where you are now, try the free neuroinclusion maturity assessment, or book a call with our team.
