The Not-so-New Workplace

Anyone who’s visited Monticello, Thomas Jefferson’s masterpiece of a home, has a favorite memory. While the gardens are spectacular and the house filled with clever inventions, I’m partial to Jefferson’s office which was situated so he could roll out of bed and get to work. Of course, in Jefferson’s time, homebased businesses were more common than long commutes, but still, he must have created the shortest commute ever.

 During the several decades following World War II, home offices all but disappeared as people went off to work in someone else’s office. Except for the freelance writer or artist who created a home studio, work meant moving to another location. 

 That’s all been gradually changing as more and more of us opt to work from home. About ten years ago, I began to notice that many model homes were including a home office, usually located near the front door making it possible for clients and customers to slip in and out easily. 

 I really knew a trend was brewing when I got a letter from a woman who said that she and her two small children had been given a tour of a friend’s new home. When they finished looking at all the rooms, her daughter turned to her and said, “Mommy, where’s the office?” Unlike most of us, the next generation may assume that work and living space just naturally flow together.

 Developers are taking that notion a step farther. Several new communities now have areas zoned for home businesses with the houses being designed with offices, waiting areas and, even, public restrooms. An article in the Minneapolis Star Tribune spotlighted another trend: living above the shop. The article featured several new apartment complexes which were designed with first floor commercial space and living quarters above or behind the shop area.  New towns, like Celebration, Florida, include both of these ideas with zoned home business areas and above-the-shop apartments.

 The home business movement has had another impact on our living spaces. When we live and work in the same place, it takes on a new importance. Consequently, people tend to care even more that the place they call World Headquarters is beautiful as well as functional. Has anyone designed a home office to resemble a cubicle? 

 Then there’s the health factor. Eliminating stressful commutes has a positive health benefit, but that’s not the only one. Homebased  businessowners also report that they find it easier to eat healthier food when they prepare it themselves and don’t have to depend on the company cafeteria or a fast food place. Home exercise rooms get more regular workouts from entrepreneurs who recognize the importance of taking care of the boss. And it’s not at all unusual to see a pet or two curled up in a home office providing companionship. 

 Best of all, this new workplace revolution is bringing beauty, sanity and health into the lives of millions who have redefined what environmentally healthy means to them.

Welcome to World Headquarters

Leigh was a single mother with a stressful job and two young children. After attending Making a Living Without a Job, she knew that self-employment was the answer for her. She quit her job,  purchased a vending machine route and tripled its sales within two months. Once that was in order, she started her next profit center, buying and renovating houses. Not only did she find that she was spending more time with her kids, she also got them involved in her business as much as possible.

One day Leigh and her children went to visit a friend who had moved into a large new house. The friend took them on a room-by-room tour of the house proudly showing off each room. When the tour ended, Leigh’s 5-year-old daughter looked at her  quizzically and said, “Mom, where’s the office?”

Leigh’s daughter is not the only one who assumes that a home should have an office. Glossy magazines now feature layouts of slick home offices. Builders of upscale homes are including an office in their plans. Trendspotters tell us that this work-at-home lifestyle is not a passing fad. (For some home office inspiration, check out these photos from the LA Times.)

Whether your work space is a studio, a rented office or a card table set up in a corner of your bedroom, efficiency is only one of the requirements. Your working space needs to be inviting, a place where you function easily surrounded by things you love and find inspiring.

It’s obvious that most of us do not duplicate the corporate cubicle look when we set out to design our personal working space.Gray and gloomy may be an appropriate backdrop for corporate workers, but home workers like to spice things up a bit. Color, personal objects, music, incense, fountains, and toys are apt to be part of the new entrepreneur’s decorating style. 

Chances are, you’re reading this on your office computer. So take a look around. Does your office reflect your power and vision, or does it resemble a junk room with a desk? Are there objects, pictures and words that lift your soul? Is it easy to find things or do you waste precious time going through piles of papers? 

 Does entering your office make you smile? It should, you know. This is your laboratory, your creation center, your idea place. So listen to Vivaldi, light some incense, get a fountain, paint the walls terra cotta, hang a poster from your favorite movie, or do whatever brings you joy. It’s a one-of-a-kind creation and you’re the beneficiary. Make it both beautiful and useful.

You and I have within us the creative intelligence to recognize the conditions that support our growth towards self-actualization, and we have the wherewithal to place ourselves in such an environment. ~ Stewart Emery

Shaping Up Your Office for the New Year

Several years ago, I was having tea with friends at the Four Seasons in Santa Barbara when the conversation turned to feng shui, the Chinese art of placement. I knew nothing about it and decided to investigate. I made several attempts to learn more by reading about feng shui, but found the books complicated and hard to apply.

Sometime later, I noticed that two local feng shui practitioners were giving a talk at Border’s. My friend Jill and I decided to attend—a decision that seemed quite innocent at the time.

Little did I suspect that it was going to turn me into a madwoman. The lecturers gave us some simple tips about things we could do in our environments to improve the chi (energy flow), along with a description of the bagua (kind of a blueprint for placement). I spent an hour or so in bed that night mentally moving furniture. I decided that my office was completely backwards, feng shui-wise, so the next morning I began rearranging things. Six hours later, my office had taken on a new airiness and was more inviting than it had ever been.

The speakers told us in order to get things flowing ahead we should move 27 objects that hadn’t been moved for a year. I had no difficulty locating 27 things that were ready for relocation. I changed mirrors and hung crystals, I fretted over sharp corners and pondered ways to soften them.

That was only the beginning. Feng shui masters had, in fact, developed a list of principles for improving business. For instance, to get the new year off to a prosperous start, they recommend greeting a new stranger every day for 27 days. Here are some other ways to add good energy to your business:

* To invite opportunity to knock, fix your front door. To further your opportunities, unblock doorways and remove stored items from behind doors.

* To support your vision and commitment, sit at a desk that is spacious, allowing room for the expansion of your ideas.

* To call forth a clear vision, hang a brass chime just inside your office door.

* To think creatively, hang a mirror to the right and to the left of your desk.

What’s particularly interesting to me about this feng shui business is that it’s a wonderful way to become more clear about the metaphors in your life. For instance, after I moved my computer to the other side of my office, I needed a longer cord. The one I had was quite tangled and I was going to just move it when I realized it would be running through my partnership area. “I don’t want tangled partnerships,” I told myself and decided to take time to straighten out the cord. 

It can get more cosmic than this, but I will resist my urge to go on about the metaphysical insights gained from moving furniture around.

“Care for our actual houses,” writes Thomas Moore, “is also care of the soul. No matter where we live, we can cultivate this wider piece of earth as a place that is integrally bound to the conditions of our hearts.” But, then, the Chinese knew that all along.

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Want to know more? I highly recommend Move Your Stuff, Change Your Life by Karen Rauch Carter which is written with the Western reader in mind.