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It is estimated that about 40 million Americans work in office cubicles, nearly 60% of the white-collar work force. The cubicle is a fairly new environment in the business world and the physicality of the cubicle has changed a lot just in the last decade or so with computers replacing typewriters and other out-moded pieces of office equipment. What can we say from a feng shui stand point about the office cubicle? It is a challenging work environment for sure. Just based on the smallness of the space, it is hard to personalize it and add typical feng shui remedies. Usually, the office cubicle has to be evaluated based on where it is within the whole building and then a whole group of cubicles can be assessed for where they are in the bigger area. For example, there could be a whole department of office cubicles in the south sector of a building. Specific to the year 2008, the annual influences in the location of South can encourage arguments or set-backs. So a whole group of people could be affected. In 2009, that same antagonistic energy will shift over to the North quadrant. One has to use a compass and have a to-scale floor plan to work with to identify these directional areas. In a work environment it is often easy to see which areas and which departments will thrive as opposed to others that may struggle or have communication problems. With the office cubicle itself, there is a contradictory mixture of being out in a bigger area with sacrifices to privacy while at the same time, being in a very closed in space that does not allow for much variety in how a person sits or positions themselves in relation to others. I've been to many office cubicles and I try to suggest little adjustments and make small strides to help improve the person's productivity, concentration, and health. For example, if a person were sitting under a heavy exposed beam or air duct and they had a little wiggle room in their cubicle to move over-then that can be a nice improvement. Often, the cubicle dictates that a person will have their back to a flow of foot traffic around the office. Some suggest placing a hand mirror on the desk to literally give the worker a "rear view" so as not to be taken by surprise when approached from behind. Sometimes things work out conveniently in the office cubicle in spite of its rigid form. For example, the element metal is needed in a lot of work spaces and the moveable half-wall partitioners that divide cubicles fom one another are often steel-framed, which qualifies for metal. In working with a client once with her cubicle space, I pointed out that her cubicle was at the end of a very long row of desks and the walkway toward her cubicle was similar to a long street that ends in front of a house at a T-juncture. She had always felt vulnerable in this sitation, so she got permission to place a 3 foot high potted plant along the side of her cubicle in alignment with the long walkway. This might be the equivalent of a person doing some hefty landscaping on their front lawn to buffer the energy flow coming in a straight line down the street. After the plant was positioned there, she did report feeling less vulnerable and had an easier time concentrating. All told, we can't say that a cubicle is bad feng shui because there are too many other variables to consider. For sure, the people who work in cubicles in the best part of a building will do better than people in cubicles in the worst part of a building. The worst and best parts of a building are determined based on the building's age and compass orientation. These are often referred to as "unseen" influences. Although only loosely related to traditional feng shui, it surely is a good thing to work under full spectrum lighting as it causes less stress on the eyes. As well, under the umbrella of chi flow and yin yang theory, it is best if your cubicle has no bad views, is not cluttered, has good ventilation, is not too noisy and other common sense physical features that will make the work day more pleasant. Kartar Diamond works with individuals and businesses for both residential and commercial properties. You can visit her website by going to www.FengShuiSolutions.net
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Office, Career, working with others, feng shui, cubicles,
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