Hey Reader,

By 3pm working in an open plan office, my body felt like it was made of concrete.

The work itself wasn't the problem.

It was the environment that was relentless - the movement in the periphery, the conversations bleeding in from two desks away, the person stopping by for a thirty second question.

Flow broken.

Gone.

And then the slow, frustrating process of trying to rebuild it before the next interruption arrived.

When I was working on a project at Google, this was a constant battle for me. The floor was open, the culture was collaborative and I spent more energy managing my own nervous system than I did on the actual work.

There were quiet spaces I could move to, but then I risked being perceived as not being a team player.

I felt like a battery hen.

A Threads follower's comment on a post on this topic summarised it perfectly:

That's not just work… that's eight hours of self-regulation.

Kim and de Dear studied over 42,000 workers and found open plan offices consistently fail to deliver the collaboration benefits they promise - and disproportionately affect people who need focus and quiet to do their best thinking.

Additionally, Jacques-Hamilton et al's randomised controlled trial found that sustaining high-activation social behaviour produces measurable fatigue in introverts significantly beyond what extroverts experience.

The exhaustion at the end of an open plan day isn't only about how much work you did; it's the cost of performing approachable for eight hours on top of it.

Another Threader commented that at least three days a week they'd come home and lie down because their battery was at zero. Working from home, they can actually function after 5pm.

The return to office mandates sweeping through industries right now are asking introverts to pay that cost again. Yet most of the people signing off on those decisions sit in their own offices.

So this week's question:

Sit with it. And if something comes up, hit reply. I read everything.

In your corner always,

Sam 💛

P.S. Know someone navigating a return to office mandate right now? Forward this to them.

Sam Sheppard Introvert Strategist Neuroscience-backed insights for introverts who are tired of adapting to a world that wasn't built for them.