You might have to whisper it in some boardrooms, but there’s a growing recognition within business that quiet spaces are important and can increase wellbeing and therefore productivity.
Many employers were on the case before Covid, and more of them have acted since people returned to their duties with an expectation of finding a more friendly working environment.
That should include the addition of quiet areas which offer rather more – or maybe that should be less – than the breakout areas which had become a bit of a cliché.
The old school view, which is still quite prevalent in the UK and overseas, is that office-based staff should work at their desks. Meeting rooms are for meetings and nothing else, and no provision is made for quiet space.
But everybody needs a break, whether their job calls for strenuous physical activity or whether it’s a sit down role taking a toll on speech, hearing, vision and brain power generally.
It can potentially become a discrimination issue in the case of people with invisible, cognitive conditions, who are neuro divergent and need quiet areas rather than just desire them.
Increasing numbers of retailers recognise that creating quiet areas within their shops can help to attract more customers including, but not limited to, people who are on the autistic spectrum and can become distracted or uncomfortable by noise and other sensory intrusions.
An even better idea for retail is to introduce periods of silence across the entire store area, the equivalent of relaxed performances at the theatre. Set aside an hour, or however long is appropriate, to remove the risk of noise spilling over from nearby shoppers. Pubs and restaurants can combine the two – many have had private bars and dining rooms for years, so why not use them to attract people who need or appreciate a quiet zone?
The benefits can make a difference not just for neuro divergent people but also for others who are having a bad day or who just need some space. As ever it’s important to remember that many disabled people do their shopping and socialising with family and friends, and if you can’t make reasonable adjustments then you are losing the spending power of the individual and their companions.
Office-based businesses made a start by introducing those breakout areas where people can go individually or as a team to variously clear their head or share opinions informally about a project in progress. There might be a hum of chatter, and then a buzz of excitement as ideas fall into place, followed by another round of coffees because we’re all on a roll.
But in the corner, someone who identified the breakout area as the closest they could find to a quiet space, is at their wit’s end because it’s impossible to avoid the unwanted conversation from others or the sounds of food and drink paraphernalia and the people using it.
The solution isn’t to give everybody their own office and leave them to create their own working environment. It’s to provide a range of options that can meet the needs of everybody at any given time.
Sometimes a bit of bustle is brilliant for business, but it’s wrong to assume that quiet space is redundant space. It can be thinking space, chill-out space, space for people to recharge.
What it should also be is space for individuals, because one neuro divergent person is not the same as others. They are all different, and in designing their space it’s important to take a pan-disability view. Different types of sound, lighting, layout and colour can all be sources of calm or consternation, so it’s important to get them right, and to do that without impinging on the needs of others.
The designers at one building we became aware of thought they were ahead of the game by planning in some quiet space. They had one room close to the lift on each floor, which was great because it meant people who needed some quiet time didn’t have to wander around trying to find it.
But in the same space they also added a kitchen, which attracted people whose priority was food and drink. And they put in some piped music, which put paid to the quietness. By not thinking it through they had created a situation where If people just wanted somewhere quiet they would have to leave the building to find it.
The next step along that route is working from home. It’s suitable for some but not for all, and it should certainly never be seen as an easy option for accommodating staff who would be able to do their shift in the office and interact, inclusively, with colleagues, if a couple of reasonable adjustments were made.
