How an office seating layout can create tension and unhappiness in the workplace.

Why hire expensive people, and then put them in a working space that degrades their productivity; it just doesn’t make sense. But up and down the country that’s often just what is happening.

Why Feng Shui

When you are setting up something new, a Feng Shui perspective can help you to create something of much more benefit to your business.

Feng Shui evaluation

In this new office plan, the big concern was that people sitting in the middle section (shown shaded on the diagram opposite) would feel uncomfortable, and therefore their performance would be reduced.

Feng Shui recommendation

Make a very simple and no cost change to the proposed plan. This would take care of the biggest concern, without significantly changing the overall idea.

The reason

It’s all about protecting your back. See Feng Shui of a forest bench.

The management decision

Ignore the Feng Shui proposal, and follow the original plan.

What happened?

• When the employees were first shown the new office, there was an immediate chorus of “I’m not sitting in the middle bit”.
• The management arranged for the staff to draw their sitting position out of a hat.
• Immediately, those who drew the middle positions were certainly not happy. Stress levels were already on the rise, even before they moved into the space.
• People in the middle positions spent much more time away from their desks.
• As time went on, if someone left the “comfortable” side areas, those in the middle started fighting to see who could move into the free space.

Eventually, this office closed again.

Comment

Good environment helps to make a good business. Taking care of the Feng Shui of your office space can be a really good investment.

The diagrams

Show a typical large open plan office. The green dots are the seats, the blue lines are mid height partitions.

Original layout - from the office planners.

In the plan shown below, people sitting in the middle section are not well supported by this environment, resulting in additional stress and therefore lower productivity.

Suggested floor plan improvement - with a Feng Shui perspective.

Without significantly changing the overall concept, the original plan could easily be improved by a very simple alteration. In the new plan, people are much better supported by the environment and are therefore happier and more productive.