Asperger's on the Job

Loud noise can feel like a physical assault but even quiet sounds may be painful and annoying, such as the hum from fluorescent lights, refrigerators, ceiling fans, printers, and other equipment.
Over-stimulation from noise in the workplace, from too much conversation, chatter, machinery, alarms, announcements, computers, etc., creates confusion. It can cause people with AS to become cranky or withdrawn; cause headaches, and trigger reactions such as having to cover one’s ears; an urgent need to flee the room; feeling frozen or inert; or feeling sick, even feeling as if one’s head “would explode.” Many with AS don’t like shouters—people who talk louder and more boisterously than a situation calls for—and many of us are very soft-spoken.