80% of employees struggle with this hidden workplace bias. Here's what employers can do

"Around the office, people clutch coffee like a life raft, waiting for their brains to come online and cursing the 8 a.m. meeting. And the cheerful colleague. But at least they got in early enough to find parking and grab coffee before it ran out-this time. Now: which person are you? The early riser, or the one watching them, wondering why you can never feel that awake at this hour no matter how hard you try?"

"Those clutching their strong brews are probably not just tired, they are socially jet-lagged. Up to 80% of the workforce uses alarm clocks to wake earlier than their body is primed to. That's not a discipline problem. That's a design problem. That coffee isn't a character weakness. And the fact that most humans require chemical and digital intervention to function at socially mandated hours should tell us something important about those hours."

Many workers arrive at work tired because their internal circadian rhythms are misaligned with early start times. Up to 80% of the workforce relies on alarm clocks to wake earlier than their bodies are primed to, producing social jet lag rather than a disciplinary failing. People commonly use coffee and digital or chemical interventions to meet socially mandated hours. Neurodiversity encompasses the full range of nervous-system wiring, including cognition, emotion, sensory processing, motor coordination, speech, and circadian regulation. Circadian variation — chronodiversity — affects sleep–wake timing and energy patterns and is rarely considered in talent processes or workplace design.

Read at Fast Company