When the office environment is clean, clear and vital, people are happy, motivated, productive, creative and engaged. There is no sign of poor Feng Shui at work. Absenteeism and staff turnover are minimised. Stakeholders thrive. The company a magnet for success. That’s why good Feng Shui makes good business sense.
When the office environment is clean, clear and vital, people are happy, motivated, productive, creative and engaged. There is no sign of poor Feng Shui at work. Absenteeism and staff turnover are minimised. Stakeholders thrive. The company a magnet for success. That’s why good Feng Shui makes for good business and poor Feng Shui at work doesn’t.
Warning signs of poor Feng Shui at work
Some of us are lucky and enjoy good Feng Shui at work. But for many of us when we think about a typical room you might have to go to for meetings typically there are stark white walls. The lighting is mostly artificial. It receives no fresh ai and smells stale from the previous occupants, who have also left their debris behind on the worktops. There’s a long rectangular table in the room with chairs crammed underneath it with about enough space to circumnavigate the edge. Are you reaching for the Paracetamol already? Yet you’re supposed to stay in here all day and thrash out new ideas.
Now let’s take a peek at the main open-plan office. How many people can you see with their desks facing the wall like they’ve run into dead ends. Their backs to one another. Here’s why engagement is not working in this company.
Meanwhile the rest of the crew are blown around in the middle of the room like dust bowls. They’re never sure from one day to the next where they’ll land in a hot-desk culture. It wouldn’t surprise me to hear that morale is low, turnover high, and staff accused of being unproductive. The company can never get the best out of its people by accommodating them in this way.
The mad dash
Some of us are fortunate enough to start our working day on a more life-enhancing note. On the way we pass green fields, we see trees, hear birds – all of which can lift our spirits if we raise our head long from our phones. A 10-minute walk around the block can achieve the same effect if we work from home or do the school run on foot.
Contrast this with the mad dash to work in the rush hour, partially underground to arrive at offices that are 15 floors up and look out onto a concrete landscape. In this instance the company would need to work extra hard on the interior using Feng Shui methodology to create a space that feels more natural and healthy in which people can survive and the business thrive.
Back inside at the drawing board. When an environment is disharmonious – whether it’s a room or a whole office block – the people working there will not function well. The company is paying for salaries and a chunk of this is going straight down the drain in reduced effectiveness. Solutions can include:
good quality lighting
a humane arrangement of furniture
the introduction of a water feature
enriching colour schemes
healthy plant life
inspiring artwork
By introducing a combination of all or any of these it doesn’t take much to create a more harmonious environment that’s conducive to work.
Receptionists in cardigans
This is a classic sign of poor Feng Shui at work.
I once walked into an architectural award-winning office block to do a Feng Shui consultation. To my surprise the first thing I saw were two receptionists wearing woolly cardigans. As it happened I was accompanied by an image consultant. She wanted to go straight up to the women and give them a piece of her mind!. I questioned her as to why she thought they had a need to dress like this in such a prestigious building. She didn’t know. So I took her on a quick tour of their high-tech environment through Feng Shui eyes.
The reception desk was like a tiny island floating in the middle of a vast open concrete sea exposed to the elements. Two large impressive, revolving doors were right opposite where the two women were seated were While these doors were energy efficient and minimised drafts, for the women it was like sitting in front of a wind turbine.
Right behind them were two sets of lift doors, opening and closing constantly, which was also disturbing As the front line of the business, no wonder they felt vulnerable and exposed and needed to add layers of ‘yin’ in the form of woolly cardigans to feel safe and protected.
Where they were seated was very ‘yang’. Strong angular lines. Lots of harsh natural light. Steel supporting structures.
The Feng Shui solution to obviate the need for woolly cardigans was to:
relocate the reception off to one side
to introduce softer, curvaceous lines in their desk area
utilise large healthy plants to screen the reception desk
introduce warmer, softer tones to define and contain the reception area.
Visitor’s area
The visitors’ seating area was exposed and needed addressing in order that visitors would feel welcome and relax.
The purpose of a Feng Shui appraisal is to enhance the quality of Ch’i (life-force energy) in our living and working spaces. Yet those of us deprived of any natural experience during working hours and without any protection from electromagnetic stress that saturates an office environment, we risk returning home depleted.
When the environment is clean, clear and vital the people will be happy, motivated, productive, creative and engaged. Absenteeism and staff turnover are minimised. Stakeholders enjoy visiting. The company is a magnet for success. That’s why Feng Shui makes good business sense.
Mary Nondé
Mary is an Intuitive Feng Shui practitioner and passionate about creating living and working environments mindfully. Trained in the Western School of Feng Shui and with Denise Linn, USA and has been working in homes and offices since 1995.