Jenna, Digital Marketeer
Location: The “Hive” Open-plan Office
Status: Sensory overload / High-masking
She is the heartbeat of the office. In a world of tickets and tasks, Jenna fights to keep the human spark alive. She refuses to let her creativity be dictated by fear and plans her goals based on energy and gratitude for nature.
My brain is everywhere
I am sitting at my desk, but my brain is everywhere except on this screen. To anyone walking by, I look perfectly composed. I don’t have headphones on; I am “available” and “engaged.” But behind this mask, I am losing a silent war against the environment.
The hum of the air conditioning is a low-frequency roar. The flicker of the LEDs is a strobe light. In the GoDIEP research, we talk about the Bio-physical cost of the workplace. I’ve read more about the design of offices for a “standard” brain that doesn’t exist.
For me, a eurodivergent professional, environmental stressors are felt 12x more intensely. It’s not a lack of focus. More of a biological overload that reduces effective IQ by 10 points. And it sucks, I feel horrible at the office.
I am high-masking. I expend half my daily energy just trying to appear “normal” and “connected.” By 2 PM, my cognitive battery is drained by the effort of being seen.
High-masking is the silent killer of creative ROI
When you spend energy on appearing okay, you have no energy left for being innovative
Energy scan
I feel the grip slipping, so I trigger the Energy scan. I close my eyes:
- Body scan: I acknowledge the locked jaw and shallow breath.
- Assign a value: My battery is at 15%.
- Neutralize: I accept this state without judgment. The orange light on my screen is the only honest data I have seen today. It is the recognition that my exhaustion is a neurological fact, not a character flaw.
