Person-Centered Manager Syllabus
1:1 “Office Hour”
Sensory Processing in the Workplace
Understanding how the nervous system receives, organizes, and responds to sensory input—and why it matters for creating inclusive, effective work environments.
Workplace Impact: Open office environments, strong air fresheners, buzzing lights, or unexpected sounds can significantly impact focus and comfort. Conversely, some may need sensory input (fidget tools, music) to maintain concentration.
What Is Sensory Processing?
Sensory processing refers to how the nervous system receives, organizes, and responds to sensory input from both the environment and the body. This includes external senses such as sound, light, touch, smell, and visual input, as well as internal senses related to movement, balance, and body awareness.
Everyone processes sensory input differently. However, for some people—particularly neurodivergent individuals—sensory input may be experienced as significantly more intense, less noticeable, or unpredictable. These differences are not deficits; they are variations in how the brain interprets information. In the workplace, sensory processing differences can meaningfully shape how employees experience their environment, perform tasks, regulate stress, and engage socially.

Sensory processing differences are often invisible. As a result, challenges are frequently misattributed to attitude, motivation, professionalism, or performance, rather than recognized as an interaction between a person and their environment.
Processing in Different Work Environments: Sensory
Work environment significantly impacts sensory processing. The transition between in-person, remote, and hybrid settings creates different sensory landscapes that can either support or challenge neurodivergent employees. Understanding these impacts helps create flexible policies that recognize processing needs.
Potential Individual Impact
Individuals with sensory processing differences may be highly sensitive (hypersensitive) to certain inputs like sound, light, smell, or touch—experiencing them as overwhelming or even painful. Others may be under-responsive (hyposensitive), not noticing certain sensory inputs as readily as neurotypical individuals, sometimes seeking out intense sensory experiences.
These differences aren't preferences or choices—they're neurological realities that significantly affect comfort, focus, and functioning.
Workplace Environment Examples
In-Person: Open office layouts with loud conversations, ringing phones, strong perfumes, fluorescent lighting, and varied temperatures can cause significant distraction, headaches, or sensory overload. Crowded spaces may require constant filtering of irrelevant stimuli.
Remote: Home environments typically allow much greater control over sensory input—adjusting lighting, managing sound levels, controlling temperature, and eliminating unexpected sensory interruptions.
Hybrid: Switching weekly between noisy offices and controlled home setups requires repeated sensory adjustment, which can be mentally taxing and impact productivity during transition periods.

Key Consideration: Sensory needs aren't luxuries—they're fundamental requirements for effective functioning. Providing sensory accommodations (quiet spaces, lighting options, headphones) benefits not just neurodivergent employees but often improves overall workplace satisfaction.
How Sensory Processing Differences Can Show Up at Work
Sensory processing differences generally fall into three broad (and often overlapping) patterns: sensory sensitivity, sensory seeking, and mixed profiles. These patterns can fluctuate based on stress, fatigue, health, workload, and environmental conditions.
Sensory Sensitivities (Sensory Avoidance)
Employees with sensory sensitivities may experience certain stimuli as overwhelming, distracting, or even physically painful. Common workplace examples include:
  • 🔊 Sound: Difficulty concentrating in open offices; distress from background noise, phone systems, alarms, or side conversations; increased fatigue after meetings with overlapping voices.
  • 💡 Light & Visual Input: Headaches or eye strain from fluorescent lighting; difficulty working in visually cluttered environments; discomfort with screens, glare, or constant motion in shared spaces.
  • 🖐️ Touch & Physical Sensation: Discomfort with certain fabrics, uniforms, or safety gear; sensitivity to office chairs, temperature changes, or shared equipment; aversion to unexpected touch or close physical proximity.
  • 👃 Smell & Taste: Nausea or distraction from cleaning products, perfumes, or food smells; difficulty working near kitchens or shared break areas.
These sensitivities can lead to increased cognitive load, meaning the employee is expending significant energy just to tolerate the environment—leaving less capacity for problem-solving, collaboration, or creativity.
Sensory-Seeking Patterns
Other employees may require additional sensory input to feel regulated, alert, or focused. In the workplace, this can look like:
  • Frequent movement (rocking, pacing, standing, stretching)
  • Fidgeting, tapping, or manipulating objects
  • Preference for loud music, pressure, or tactile input
  • Working best while walking, doodling, or using hands-on tools.
Sensory-seeking behaviors are often misunderstood as restlessness, distraction, or lack of professionalism, particularly in traditional office cultures that equate stillness with focus.
Mixed or Context-Dependent Sensory Profiles
Many people experience both sensitivity and seeking, depending on the sense, task, or moment. For example:
  • An employee may be highly sensitive to noise but seek movement.
  • Someone may tolerate sensory input well in the morning but become overwhelmed later in the day.
  • Stress, deadlines, or social demands may intensify sensory challenges.
This variability is important. Sensory needs are not static, and effective support requires flexibility rather than rigid accommodations.
Impact on Work, Relationships, and Wellbeing
When sensory needs are not understood or supported, employees may experience:
Cognitive overload and reduced concentration
Heightened stress and emotional exhaustion
Increased risk of burnout
Withdrawal from meetings or social interactions
Misinterpretation of behavior as disengagement or noncompliance
Sensory-related behaviors—such as covering ears, avoiding eye contact, requesting breaks, or moving frequently—can be perceived as "odd" or disruptive by colleagues unfamiliar with sensory processing differences. This lack of understanding can increase bias, strain working relationships, and contribute to social exclusion at work.
Manager Guide
How Managers Can Support Sensory Processing
Through Person-Centered Management
Person-centered management shifts the focus from enforcing uniform behavior to creating conditions where people can do their best work. Supporting sensory processing does not require complex or costly interventions; it requires curiosity, flexibility, and psychological safety.
01
Normalize Sensory Differences
  • Explicitly acknowledge that people experience environments differently.
  • Reinforce that regulation strategies (movement, headphones, breaks) are acceptable and encouraged.
  • Avoid framing sensory needs as special treatment.
02
Use Curiosity-Led Communication
  • Ask open, non-judgmental questions such as:
  • "What helps you stay focused during the day?"
  • "Are there parts of the environment that make your work harder?"
  • Avoid assumptions about what someone "should" tolerate.
03
Focus on Outcomes, Not Appearance
  • Evaluate performance based on results, not how work looks.
  • Allow flexibility in posture, movement, or workspace setup as long as outcomes are met.
04
Support Regulation, Not Just Productivity
  • Encourage breaks before overload occurs.
  • Recognize that regulation supports sustained performance, not avoidance of work.
Building Holistic, Team-Level Sensory Supports
In addition to individual support, managers can build environments that reduce sensory strain for everyone.
Environmental Adjustments
  • Offer lighting options (lamps, reduced fluorescents, screen filters)
  • Provide quiet zones or noise-reduced spaces
  • Allow noise-canceling headphones where appropriate
  • Reduce strong scents in shared spaces
Flexible Work Practices
  • Offer remote or hybrid options when possible
  • Allow asynchronous communication to reduce sensory and social overload
  • Provide clear agendas and expectations to reduce cognitive strain
Inclusive Team Norms
  • Normalize movement during meetings
  • Allow cameras off when appropriate
  • Set expectations around respectful noise levels and shared spaces
  • Encourage use of written follow-ups to complement verbal communication
Why This Matters
Supporting sensory processing is not about comfort alone. It directly impacts:
  • Focus and task completion
  • Emotional regulation and resilience
  • Collaboration and communication
  • Retention, engagement, and innovation
When managers understand sensory processing and respond with person-centered practices, employees no longer have to spend their energy surviving the environment. They can invest that energy in contributing, creating, and thriving at work.

A sensory-aware workplace is not a special accommodation. It is a smarter, more humane way to design work for real human beings.
Exploring Key Processing Areas
1
1
Speech Processing
Understanding verbal communication nuances.
2
2
Auditory Processing
Interpreting sound and filtering noise.
3
3
Sensory Processing
Responding to environmental stimuli.
Continue Your Journey
01
Foundation concepts, definitions, and understanding neurodiversity as natural human variation
02
Active support strategies, best practices, and ways to champion neurodivergent colleagues
03
How different brains process information and the workplace implications of processing differences
04
Core skills for workplace success and how to support diverse executive function profiles
05
Practical tools, shared responsibilities, and creating sustainable neuroinclusive cultures
06
Recognizing, respecting, and affirming the diverse identities, experiences, and ways of being that people bring into the workplace.