September 19: The Hidden Exclusion Of Everyday Spaces
The Hidden Exclusion of Everyday Spaces
When we walk into a workplace, most of us probably do not stop to think about whether the space around us has been designed with us in mind. We find the entrance, locate our desk, join the meeting, make ourselves a coffee and carry on with the day, often without noticing all the small things that make those activities feel straightforward. But what feels effortless and ordinary for one person can be surprisingly difficult for another, particularly when the spaces we use every day have been designed around assumptions about how people move, communicate, concentrate, socialise and work.
This is where some of the most overlooked forms of exclusion can exist. They are not always obvious, and they are rarely created with the intention of excluding anyone, but they can still influence who feels comfortable, who can participate easily and who has to spend additional energy working around their environment. A workplace might have an accessible entrance but a meeting room that is difficult to navigate, a beautifully designed office but nowhere quiet to concentrate, a communal kitchen that assumes everyone can easily reach everything or a social space where joining in depends on being comfortable with noise, crowds or informal conversation.
None of these things necessarily look like exclusion when we are experiencing the workplace from our own perspective which is why it is so valuable to become curious about the experiences of other people.
Everyday spaces carry messages about who they were designed for. When everything works for us, we rarely notice the design choices behind it, because we simply experience them as normal. But when something does not work for us, we become much more aware of the environment around us. We might have to find a different route, ask for help, arrive earlier, leave sooner, sit somewhere specific or develop our own way of navigating something that everyone else seems to take for granted. Over time, constantly having to make these adjustments can affect how comfortable and connected someone feels within their workplace.
This can happen in physical spaces, but it can also happen in the less visible spaces where workplace life takes place.
Think about the informal conversation that happens around the coffee machine, the team lunch where everyone is expected to join, the networking event held in a noisy venue, the meeting where people are expected to respond immediately or the after-work gathering that becomes an important place for relationships and opportunities to develop. These moments can feel like harmless parts of workplace culture, but they can also influence who gets included in informal networks, who feels comfortable participating and who has access to relationships that can shape their experience and progression.
A workplace can therefore be technically accessible while still containing everyday spaces that are not equally welcoming to everyone.
This is particularly important because belonging is often built outside the formal structures of work. People develop friendships, exchange ideas, share opportunities and build trust through the informal moments that happen around their jobs. If those moments consistently work better for some people than others, the impact can be much greater than simply missing out on a social occasion. It can affect someone's sense of connection to their colleagues and their feeling that they are genuinely part of the wider organisation.
Inclusion is about creating enough flexibility and awareness that people have different ways of participating without being made to feel that they are less committed, less sociable or less interested because they cannot engage in exactly the same way as everyone else.
Leaders and managers can make a particularly powerful difference by making considerations part of normal planning rather than waiting for someone to identify a problem. Asking about accessibility, offering different ways to participate and being open to adapting a space or activity can help remove the pressure from individuals to repeatedly explain why something does not work for them. It also creates a culture where people are more likely to raise barriers when they encounter them, because they know that doing so will be met with curiosity rather than judgement.
We also can take note of the spaces that we move through every day and ask ourselves who they work well for, and who might have to work harder to use them. We can pay attention to who naturally joins conversations, who seems comfortable in particular environments and who may be quietly finding another way to participate. We can also resist making assumptions about why someone does not join in, because choosing a different way of participating does not necessarily mean that someone is disengaged.
The most powerful barriers are not always the ones we can immediately see; sometimes they are woven so deeply into everyday routines that we have stopped noticing them altogether. Changing them begins with becoming more aware of the assumptions behind our spaces and being willing to ask whether there is a more inclusive way of doing things. A workplace should not require people to constantly adapt themselves to an environment that was never designed with them in mind.
When we create spaces that offer flexibility, accessibility and genuine choice, we are not only making things easier for particular individuals, we are creating workplaces that recognise people as they actually are: different, varied and wonderfully non-standard. We are making it possible for more people to participate in ways that work for them, without having to justify why they need something different and that adds to our creation of belonging by making sure that difference does not become a barrier to being part of the workplace.
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