Why Your Best Employees Might Be Working Twice as Hard Just to Stay Focused
In my clinical practice as a physiotherapist, I have come to realise that the most profound ergonomic crisis in the modern workplace isn’t about lumbar support—it is about cognitive ergonomics. When I see workplace layouts, I see the “fishbowl” of the open-plan office, an environment that many people describe as a constant sensory assault.
As Yvonne Hall of HeartScience describes it, for many neurodivergent individuals, the experience of a standard office is “like a tele is playing all the stations, not one, at once.” What we have historically accepted as “normal” office culture is frequently a physical and cognitive barrier to the most capable members of our teams.
The 140% Productivity Secret: Moving Beyond “Reasonable Adjustments”
Traditional medical models of disability tend to view neurodivergence as a deficit to be accommodated. However, the data reveals a far more compelling narrative of untapped excellence. Synthesis of reports from global leaders like Hewlett Packard Enterprise shows that neurodiverse teams are 30% more productive than their counterparts.
“A report by JPMorgan Chase found that professionals in its Autism at Work initiative made fewer errors and were 90% to 140% more productive than neurotypical employees.”
These figures are not just anomalies; they represent a fundamental mismatch between traditional environments and diverse neurocognitive profiles.
Active inclusion pays clear dividends: organisations that provide mentors for disabled professionals report a 16% increase in profitability and an 18% increase in productivity. When we move beyond a checkbox of “reasonable adjustments” towards active, customised accessibility, we find a massive return on investment. According to Deloitte (2023), organisations implementing neurodiversity-inclusive policies see an ROI of 2.5:1.
The “Inclusive Leadership Paradox”: When Trying to Help Hurts
Recent research by Yannick Griep et al. (2025) highlights the Inclusive Leadership Paradox: the reality that well-intentioned, “one-size-fits-all” inclusion efforts can actually lead to the exclusion of neurodivergent staff. True accessibility is not about treating everyone the same; it is about “customised accessibility.”
In my assessments, I frequently see “unintentional” barriers built into office culture that create temporal and cognitive strain:
- Zoom Fatigue and Forced Video: While intended to foster connection, the social pressure of “forced” video is exhausting for those who must expend extra efort monitoring non-verbal cues or who need to stim (self-stimulate) to maintain focus.
- The “White Space” Meeting Culture: In many technical sectors, the person who fills the silence first dominates the conversation. This excludes those who require “crip time”—the necessary non-linear processing time to formulate complex thoughts.
- Social Pressure for Presence: The implicit demand to be “seen” in the office forces employees to spend more energy “modelling” productive behaviour than actually performing their tasks.
The Invisible Labour of Working from Home
For many neurodivergent professionals, working from home (WFH) is a critical access need, not a lifestyle perk. As highlighted in the study by Das et al., transitioning from the office “fishbowl” to a home “nook” allows for the precise management of sensory stimuli. However, this transition involves significant “invisible labour”—the additional cognitive and emotional effort required to make a digital workday accessible.
From a physiotherapy perspective, WFH also allows employees to manage the physical exhaustion of “stationary posture” and “sensory shielding.” In an office, the constant effort to remain still and “act normal” is a physical drain. At home, the ability to control light, sound, and movement makes high-level output possible.
“Anybody that looks at what I’m doing thinks that I’m slacking, but I’m just processing in a different way… the office has never been a place that I felt productive.” — P9 (ADHD)
“Kind of trapped and like you’re being watched like a fishbowl.” — P26 (Psychosocial Disability), describing the open office.
The Fear Factor: Why 65% are Still Hiding in Plain Sight
Despite the clear economic case for inclusion, 65% of neurodivergent employees still fear discrimination in the workplace. This fear is rooted in a significant awareness gap: 63.3% of workplaces remain “unaware” of neurodiversity issues, and 32.1% of employees report that neurodivergence has negatively impacted their career development (DiversityWorks, 2022).
To bridge this gap, Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) must evolve from policy checkboxes into proactive behavioural spaces. An ERG should be an ecosystem where professionals share innovative ideas and critical thinking without the pressure to conform to neurotypical norms. Failing to create these spaces is a missed economic opportunity of significant scale.
The “Double Empathy” Problem and thThe “Inclusive Leadership Paradox”: When Trying to Help Hurts
Strength of Difference
The communication breakdowns we see in offices are often attributed to the “deficits” of neurodivergent staff. However, the Double Empathy framework suggests this is a mutual failure of understanding between two different groups. The burden of empathy has traditionally been placed solely on the neurodivergent person; true inclusion requires that the organisation meets them halfway.
When we design roles around specific cognitive strengths rather than rigid job descriptions, we see remarkable results.
| Cognitive Profile | Potential Workplace Strength |
|---|---|
| Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) | High Information Processing, strengths in Block Design, and superior Verbal/Non-verbal reasoning. |
| Dyslexia | Creativity, Adaptability, and high Problem-Solving. Note: 22% of business owners show 6+ indicators of dyslexia (Logan, 2009). |
| ADHD | Rapid Information Synthesis, Hyper-focus, and Energy Channeling for innovation. |
Inclusion as a Legacy, Not a Policy
Neurodiversity should not be viewed as a “condition to be managed,” but as “the best place of innovation” (European Economic Letters, 2025). Optimising our workplaces for neurodivergent professionals is about more than being “nice”—it is about modernising our culture to support how humans actually think and process information.
When we reimagine our offices through this behavioural and ergonomic lens, we signal a commitment to a culture that values cognitive diversity as a legacy, not just a policy. As you evaluate your own workspace, ask yourself: “Is your office designed to support how humans actually think, or is it just designed to look like a productive space?”
- Disclosure of Neurodivergence in Software Workplaces: a Mixed Methods Study of Forum and Survey Perspectives: This paper can be accessed via its DOI link at https://doi.org/10.1145/3663547.3746334.
- Neurodiversity Works–Literally: A Scoping Review of Neurodivergence in the Workplace: This journal article was retrieved directly from https://orb.binghamton.edu/alpenglowjournal/vol11/iss2/1.
- Optimizing Employee Resource Groups: Fostering Workplace Culture For The Behaviour Of Neurodivergent And Neurotypical Professionals: This paper is published in the European Economic Letters, which can be found at http://eelet.org.uk.
- Towards Accessible Remote Work: Understanding Work-from-Home Practices of Neurodivergent Professionals: The text for this paper contains a placeholder DOI link formatted as https://doi.org/10.1145/nnnnnnn.nnnnnnn.
- Overcoming the Double Empathy Problem Within Pairs of Autistic and Non-autistic Adults Through the Contemplation of Serious Literature and Workplace Adjustments for Autistic Employees: What is ‘Reasonable’?: Both of these sources are accessed via the PubMed Central (PMC) database at pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.
- Brown, S. M., & Peterson, C. (2022). Tailoring Support for NeurodivergentEmployees: A Comprehensive Approach. Journal of Workplace Psychology,27(1), 45-60
- (1) (PDF) The Impact of Neurodiversity-Inclusive Policies on Employee Performance, Retention, and Organizational Culture in the Workplace”. Available from:
- https://www.researchgate.net/publication/381699207_The_Impact_of_Neurodiversity-Inclusive_Policies_on_Employee_Performance_Retention_and_Organizational_Culture_in_the_Workplace [accessed Nov 20 2024].
- Deloitte. (2023). The Economic Impact of Neurodiversity-Inclusive Policies: A Cost-Benefit Analysis. Deloitte Insights
- Logan, J. (2009). Dyslexic entrepreneurs: The incidence; their coping strategies and their business skills. Cass Business School, City University London. Retrieved
- from https://www.bayes.city.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/367383/julielogan-dyslexic-entrepreneurs.pdf[4].
- Majeed, N. M., Hartanto, A., & Tan, J. J. X. (2021). Developmental dyslexia and creativity: A meta‐analysis. Dyslexia: An International Journal of Research and Practice, 27(2), 187–203. https://doi.org/10.1002/dys.1677
- Ndindeng, A. (2024). The Impact of Neurodiversity-Inclusive Policies on Employee Performance, Retention, and Organizational Culture in the Workplace”. 10.13140/RG.2.2.32532.51843.
- Neurodiversity in Business, & Birkbeck University. (2024). Neurodiversity in business and work report. Retrieved from https://neurodiversityinbusiness.org/wp-content/uploads/2024-09-30-Neurodiversity-in-Business-and-BirbeckUniversity-Research.pdf
- Silberman, S. (2015). NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity. Avery Publishing.
- Smith, A. R., & Williams, T. K. (2022). Implementing Neurodiversity Policies in Modern Workplaces: A Review of Current Practices. Journal of Organizational Behaviour, 44(1), 99-120.
- (1) (PDF) The Impact of Neurodiversity-Inclusive Policies on Employee Performance, Retention, and Organizational Culture in the Workplace”.
- https://www.researchgate.net/publication/381699207_The_Impact_of_Neurodiversity-Inclusive_Policies_on_Employee_Performance_Retention_and_Organizational_Culture_in_the_Workplace [accessed Nov 20 2024].
- Takayanagi, M., Kawasaki, Y., Shinomiya, M. et al. Review of Cognitive Characteristics of Autism Spectrum Disorder Using Performance on Six Subtests on Four Versions of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children. J Autism Dev
- Disord 52, 240–253 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-021-04932-x
- Wilson, A. C. (2024). Cognitive profile in autism and ADHD: A meta-analysis of performance on the WAIS-IV and WISC-V. Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology, 39(4), 498-515. https://doi.org/10.1093/arclin/acad073