The Edge Magazine Vol. 8

HELPS EVERYONE NEURODIVERSE WORKPLACE DESIGN FOR THE

S ometimes late into the night, Elizabeth Beck finds herself still awake, seated at her home-office desk, intently focused on work. She calls it her “goblin mode,” and it’s the quiet time where she finds solitude and space to focus on heads down analytical work, with fewer distractions that make it difficult to regulate and direct her attention—a challenge sometimes for Elizabeth, who discovered last year that she was autistic. She is often sensitive to light and sound, so she works underneath soft, white LED lights, because she says she can sometimes hear fluorescent lighting, which she finds sterile and unsettling. Diagnosed with ADHD in her early 20s, she takes medication that can make it difficult to regulate her body temperature, so even in the heat of Atlanta—where she lives and works as an appraiser for Cushman & Wakefield—she might sport a fleece and a thick, knit puffball hat.

SOPHIE SCHULLER Partner – Head of Scientific

KELLY MANN Director Total Workplace kelly.mann@cushwake.com

BRYAN BERTHOLD Global Lead Workplace Experience bryan.berthold@cushwake.com

Research and Insights Workplace and Occupier Strategy, Netherlands sophie.schuller@cushwake.com

18 THE EDGE