Why open-plan offices are bad news for ADHD workers

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Bright overhead lighting, noisy phone calls, unpredictable office temperature and smells from the kitchen are all triggers that can overload workers with ADHD.

Michelle Bellyou often leaves work exhausted and unable to speak. After getting home, she can do little more than take off her coat and shoes, stare at the walls for hours and cry from her sofa. The cause? Her workplace is BT’s open-plan office.

“I’ll try and concentrate so hard on what people are saying that I won’t hear them because all of my senses are on fire,” says Bellyou, head of implementation at BT. Bellyou’s experience will be familiar to the thousands of workers across the UK who have ADHD or other conditions that can trigger similar reactions, such as autism.

“It can completely destroy someone’s career,” says Henry Shelford, chief executive of charity ADHD UK. However, she says moving to new desks in different departments has, at times, been disruptive. She prefers the predictability of having her own space where she can control the lighting and air conditioning.

Not all companies are so obstinate. Many City employers, particularly the bigger ones, are thinking about how to help staff with conditions that affect how they interact with the world.

 

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