Claiming Space

Coach Catherine Andrews in “command position.”

Where’s your desk?

If you go into the office 5 days a week, you probably have little choice about where to place the desk. This is increasingly true as more office interiors come pre-designed. But if you work from home, either full-time or a few days a week, you have the power to arrange your workspace in a way that enhances your productivity and makes you feel inspired.

How we place our desks is not something most of us give much thought to because the room we work in seems to dictate where our desk should go. This is especially true if the room also serves another function: if it’s our dining room, a bedroom, or a space off the kitchen. We look around, find a bit of wall that’s not occupied, and stick the desk there.

Since we now live in the Zoom (or Teams, or Meet) era, we have the opportunity to view how other people use their workspace. It’s been instructive. One thing I’ve noticed is that there is often a whole room behind the person speaking. Some floor space, a few chairs or a sofa, a painting, bookcase or fireplace across the way. Maybe a window, hopefully not directly behind them. All too often, there’s a bed lurking in the background.

In other words, the open room behind them suggests that their desk is pushed up against a wall.

I’m not talking here about professional Zoomers, people who offer comments on television or deliver video podcasts. I’m talking about people who join meetings rather than present them. Four years of viewing participants in thousands of virtual meetings convinces me that this is so. Even virtual backgrounds usually portray a room behind the speaker.

I’ve been thinking about this since I read a LinkedIn post by Catherine Andrews, a life coach with expertise in feng shui. Feng shui is the ancient Chinese art of arranging rooms, objects, buildings, and spaces to create balance and harmony and support well-being. The idea is to promote positive energy, or Qi, by avoiding surfaces or impediments that keep it blocked.

Just as Qi, in the Chinese system, moves through our bodies, supporting and maintaining our health, so does it move through our environment and our living spaces, carrying opportunities and bringing the potential for abundance.

But guess what? Shoving your desk up against a wall blocks all that positive Qi that could be supporting and refreshing you while you work.

According to Andrews, our work can benefit if we put our desk in a “command” position, which means having our back to a wall but with enough distance so we can sit comfortably in our office chair. The room should be in front of us and we should have a view of the door. For Andrews, finding the right arrangement was tough because she has a tiny office. So pulling the desk out felt awkward, as if the it were taking up too much of the room and not leaving space for other furniture.

Facing the room also stirred up feelings related to her business and career. “I thought, Who am I to take up this much space? It feels silly, as if I’m pretending to be a big CEO.”

Yet she persisted. And over time she realized that positioning her desk to face the room presented real advantages. She writes:

1. It settled my nervous system. Even if you know you’re safe, having your back to the door keeps you slightly on alert.
2. It made me ‘face my life.’ To run a “big girl” business, I had to look forward—literally and figuratively.
3. It had me take up space, instead of cramming into a corner for convenience or appearance.
4. It helped me “see opportunities.” By facing the door, I saw what was coming—both literally and metaphorically.

I was especially intrigued by her third point, about the how it helped her get more comfortable taking up space. In How Women Rise, one of the habits that undermines women is a tendency to minimize. For example, we may try to shrink ourselves physically, by slouching or taking a seat at the back of the room. Or we make ourselves smaller (and less important) through our words: “I just want to add one point,” or “I’m sorry” (when we’ve done nothing wrong), or “this may not be relevant, but…”

As Andrews points out, we also can also - perhaps unwittingly- minimize ourselves and tamp down our energy by how we arrange our workspace. Finding a new position for our desk is a powerful way of claiming our space, assuring we have a clear view of things, and respecting our right to be seen and be heard. A way of being– and showing we are– in command.

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