Do NOT sit with your back facing the door

You may be doing some reorganization of your living area and working room. When you are rearranging the furniture for your study or working room, take care to ensure your back is not facing the door.

Especially if you are the sole breadwinner of the family and the room is used for you to do your work.

A more logical and rational explanation

The mother looked like she had to juggle multiple tasks on her plate. While engrossed in her work and suddenly someone showed up over her shoulder may give her a huge shock. The dining table is converted to her office table. It would be better to sit facing the door than with her back on it.

I am not an expert in feng shui but some things are common sense. Now if we sit with back facing the door, for example the sofa, study or dining chair facing the door, we would never see what comes at us. What if an intruder crept in quietly from the back and potentially could cause us harm? Hence using logic we know this is not viable.

Another reason is because with your back facing the door you may be caught unawares. People may sneak up behind and the sudden sound of them talking or tapping your back may give you a jolt especially if you are engrossed in a task.

If you have anxiety or underlying heart issues, constantly being jolted would not be good for your health.

Corporate office settings

Sometimes in office meeting or board rooms, a dedicated seat is usually reserved for the big boss. If you are the boss, you need to ensure that you do not choose a set that has your back facing the wall. No matter how strategic ie easiest to see the writing board or projected images…always choose a seat where you face the door.

If not, you may find you get constantly challenged by your staff or other departments. You may be subjected to office politics and backstabbing by others.

In one of the previous corporations I work, the room of my head of department really have an odd design. The room is designed in such a way that my boss’s back was facing the door when working.

This is because the power source location of the desktop (that time laptops were not yet a norm) made the installation of teh computers to face the door. Hence anyone working on their computer would have their backs facing the door.

I had felt uncomfortable when I saw this arrangement after we moved to this new building. In the previous building, a previous head had lasted many years. In the previous office, the head’s back is against the wall with the head facing the door.

After we moved into this new building, NONE of my head of department lasted long. Even though they are truly capable people.

Furthermore my company then adopted this open door policy where doors to bosses rooms should always be open.

Hence when anyone walk into the room, the first thing they would see is the screen where the boss is working on. The boss would need to turn his or her body to see who is the person coming in.

Until with one of them (my forth department head at that time), I had to voice my concern about potentially back feng shui to have her back facing the door.

This big boss of mine is kind of special. She had unconventional approach in trying to solve problems. She had offered me a managerial job which I had thanked her but politely declined. She tried to probe what was my reason of declining the offer. Not giving up, she actually requested me to call my mom up for dim sum. She wanted to understand things better but my mom did tell her was stubborn person and made certain decisions with regards to my corporate direction and would not bulge.

It was kind of funny but I appreciated my big boss for her efforts. About a year or so I left the job to give it a go at blogging. She left about 2 months after me.

Another case concerns a popular YouTuber. When I started following her, she had like less than 1k subscribers. But the content she puts out were real good, relatable and actionable. I always wondered why her videos had like only few hundred views.

One day the YouTube algo picked up on one of her videos which went viral. As she had worked hard on past videos, people who came for that viral video ended up staying for other of her past videos and subscribing. Her channel exploded and subscribers grew which I felt very happy for her.

Around the same time she was also planning to move house with her husband as they bought their own place. She made a video showing her new workspace. I saw that in the new room, which is more spacious, she has her back facing the door. It would be better if she turned the table the other way round and have her back facing the wall with her face facing the door.

I actually did leave a comment on the video expressing my concern. I was worried that with that position, she may not have her own back covered. And as she is such a genuine person who one can feel shares their heart and soul in her videos, she may encounter bullies, trolls that may backstab and turn others against her. That was my concern when one work with having one’s back exposed.

Eventually there are things happening in my own life and I had been busy. I stopped watching these type of videos to focus on other aspects of my life.

Which is also why you may notice I had not been posting regularly on this blog (as well as all my other blogs).

But recently, I came across her videos while searching for something in YouTube and started watching some of her videos.

To my horror, she is in the midst of divorce. She is very heartbroken as her marriage of 7 years has ended (she was best friends with her husband before they started dating).

The back facing door thingy may or may not be related to negative events that are happening. But I myself personally would not feel comfortable being seated with my head against the door and having no idea who is coming in through the door.

It is just a simple thing which many have just ignore. Sometimes it is hard to arrange in a small room. In a small room sometimes people sit with their backs facing the door so that their face can face the window to get natural light.

Most people would prefer to have the table leaning against the window to get some light. But in the picture above, the lady’s back is against the wall.

Above: Another example on a relatively small room where the desk is positioned in such a way that the person would face the door with the windows on the left.

My bedroom is small too. But I have adjusted to have my head facing towards the door.

And when we visit rooms of rich Chinese tycoons, we would usually find that their table and body faces the door. They always have their backs supported by a solid wall. Of course, there are other aspects being taken care of such as the location of their room, direction that they are facing and the door, etc calculated in favour based on their date of birth.