CONCLUSION

This report has focused on the physical work space, but we cannot ignore the role that office culture plays in the health and wellbeing of neurodiverse individuals. As one interviewee said:

“A team that is supportive to needs and requirements makes it easier to cope with an office environment that is not enabling.”

Interviewee

If a person feels socially secure and supported, they have more resources and capacity to mitigate other stressors. It must also be considered that there is a feedback loop between office culture and physical space. A physical space that is purposefully designed for equitable inclusion will set the tone for the office culture – ‘a place where people are treated with dignity’.

“The office environment feeds into how much burden there is on the

NHS, employer and society. It is part of the wider ecosystem of health.”

Interviewee

Thinking of the office space beyond employment, as part of a wide societal ecosystem, we can begin to shift the narrative from productivity to healing. When labour and its physical conditions put people’s health at risk it can have a wide societal impact, placing a burden on the NHS, impeding people from developing to their full potential, and even playing a role in future health inequities. ■

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