About two years ago, a friend of mine confided in me about her work situation. She told me that she was sick of working at her consulting firm and was about to begin her search for a new job. I was puzzled at this, as Jane was doing so well the last time I caught up with her. She had already been with the company for eight years and was well on her way to running her own division! She was the bosses’ favourite and there was even talk of promoting her to take on a regional role in Vietnam!
I asked her what had happened and Jane began pouring her heart out about all the problems she had at work. All her headaches seemed to manifest about six months ago after “the big move”. According to Jane, her department had performed so well that she and her team were upgraded into a newer and larger wing in the building. Everyone in Jane’s department got brand new cubicles and the bonus was the large window that overlooked the city’s skyline. Jane, being her boss’ pet, was given the largest cubicle right next to the window. She was thrilled to bits – but ironically, this was the beginning of everything working against her!
After moving into her new office desk, Jane’s performance and her strong position at work began to suffer. She got infected with a rare flu virus and was forced to stay away from work for more than two weeks. Being sick and away caused Jane to miss a very important deadline for her largest client. It was truly a very serious matter, as her client was involved with a bid for a high-profile government project, which they lost due to her being away. It was so serious that her client threatened to withdraw all their projects with the firm, and lodged a formal complaint against her, insisting that she be replaced!
News of this got to the Executive committee and Jane was asked to attend a formal ‘verbal’ warning meeting. Suddenly, she found herself under performance management overnight. Each day she was required to meet with her boss to report on all her tasks and deadlines. Her boss began checking her every move and scrutinizing all her delivery times. All this caused a great amount of stress for Jane and she fell ill again. Being away from work for another two weeks caused her boss to lose even more confidence in her. The final blow came when all her large accounts were removed from her and given to another colleague. Jane was reassigned all the smaller accounts and asked to work with a junior executive.
Up to this point, Jane was never a serious practitioner of feng shui, but she knew instinctively that somehow the change of office space had affected her success in some way. As Jane was a very old friend mine, I offered to take a look at the feng shui of her office. Reluctantly, she said to me “take a look if you want – but I’m going to find a new job soon, so I’m not sure if fixing my feng shui is worth the effort!” she sulked.
That weekend, we visited Jane’s office on the 28th floor. It was a lovely cubicle set on the West side of the building, so it meant that Jane was able to watch the sun set every evening. It was also very hot as there were no blinds to block away the evening sun.
I proceeded to take directions of the main door she used to enter this part of the office wing. Bad news! The door was facing her Chueh Ming direction! When I reached her cubicle and took directions there, my compass showed the same thing. Jane was also facing her Chueh Ming at her office desk!
The Chueh Ming is the total loss direction. It brings every kind of bad luck and can cause serious reversals of fortune. It is no wonder she was falling sick and having such serious obstacles at work!
And finally, the one big thing causing her to lose the support of her bosses and clients was the position of her desk. Jane was seated with her back towards the large window, which overlooks the ground 28 floors below!
I explained all this to Jane and she just folded her arms in defiance. “What am I supposed to do about this? I can’t change my seat and there is no way I can turn my desk around,” she said. So here is what I recommended:
1 First, I advised her to use a different entry into the 28th floor. The good news was that there were two entrance doors into her floor – one led to the West wing and the other led to the East Wing. I advised her to use the other entrance into the East Wing. It meant that Jane would have to walk a little further to reach her cubicle, but the change was worth the effort. This was the perfect entrance for her as it was facing her Sheng Chi direction, which was significantly more beneficial for her.
2 Next, we had to kill off her Chueh Ming star. The Chueh Ming has a weakness – it is vulnerable to fire energy. Fire energy weakens the Chueh Ming and when it is accompanied by a spiritual cure, it becomes almost powerless to inflict harm. I advised Jane to place a table lamp directly in front of her and keep it turned on. By having this fire energy in front of her, whatever Chueh Ming energy there was coming towards her would be nullified. I also advised Jane to wear our Red Fire Totem pendant – a stack of powerful seed syllables that create the element of fire. Wearing the Red Fire Totem Pendant not only counters the effects of the Chueh Ming, but also protects Jane from physical and emotional harm. It will help to minimize her vulnerability to illness as well.
3 Thirdly, I advised her to hang a painting of a mountain behind her. Even though there was a window behind her, this was not difficult to achieve. I explained that all she needed to do was to order an A1 sized print of a mountain and paste it behind her using blue tack. She was very reluctant to lose her “view” of the sunset, but she caved in after I insisted.
4 Finally, I advised her to place plenty of auspicious symbols on her desk to increase her luck and good fortune. Specifically, I asked Jane to place a set of the Eight Auspicious Objects, a RuYi to reclaim her authority, the Windhorse to increase her success luck and the Jade Emperor holding a windchime to bring powerful benefactors for her.
Reluctantly but surely, Jane implemented all my suggestions.
In the same week, things started to improve for Jane. Now that she was entering her floor using the East Wing door, it had the benefit of passing by all the offices of the Executive Directors. Each day, Jane would drop by and have a little chat with a different Executive director on her way to her cubicle. This allowed her to showcase her incredible talent for problem solving and her reputation as a “bringer of practical solutions” began to spread among the Executive team!
After three weeks of chatting up the Executive Directors, Jane was invited to facilitate and lead a “secret” brainstorming project at work. Not even her boss was invited to participate so it was a real honour to be asked! She performed the role so well that one of the Executive Directors asked for her to be transferred into his department!
Fast forward a year later, Jane is now running her own division under the Executive director who had her transferred into his area. She was given a hefty raise, a new company car and even the use of the company driver! All this unfolded for Jane as soon as she implemented these simple but effective feng shui strategies! I’m so thrilled for Jane, as not only did feng shui save her from making the mistake of leaving such a great job, it made her realize how important feng shui directions can be!
