Keeping Peace With Feng Shui

A lucky bamboo plant is perched on a shelf in Capt. Ed Skvarna’s office. And on top of a towering file cabinet in the corner is a small stone sculpture with a stream of water trickling down its side.

The Burbank Police Department captain wants to create harmony in his workplace.

Skvarna, who has been on the force since 1979, has spent the past year exploring how the ancient Chinese practice of feng shui can boost morale in his department.

He gets teased a lot as a result. Fellow cops call him “Master.”

Skvarna started brainstorming with feng shui practitioners last summer.

He was researching a project for Command College, a course for police managers.

Although morale at his department isn’t sinking, Skvarna said, “it can always be better.”

Last month, he submitted an 80-page thesis titled, “How Will the Application of Feng Shui Principles in Workplace Design Affect Employee Morale by the Year 2006.”

Now, to avoid being startled, he doesn’t sit with his back to the door. He also keeps his desk free of clutter.

“I employ some of the principles because they’re just basic common sense,” he said.

Describes Himself as ‘Mainstream’

Skvarna isn’t New Age and he isn’t bohemian. He grew up in West Covina and his background is Czech.

His hair is neatly combed and parted, he wears khakis and polo shirts and he’s got a gun at his hip. Alongside the Japanese wood-block prints on his office walls are the medals he earned in the Air Force.

“I’m mainstream--I’m just really open to nonstandard approaches to things,” he said.

Kartar Diamond, a feng shui consultant who helped with Skvarna’s study, said feng shui can even help prevent crime; she contends that inharmonious buildings can promote lawbreaking.

But the more likely benefits for the Burbank department, or any office environment, are higher productivity, less stress and fewer personality conflicts, she said.

“Trying to create more harmony in the workplace would be their goal,” she said.

Diamond said the “negative areas” of the police station should be used for storage, bathrooms and even the jail. Positive areas should be reserved for officers, she said.

Another feng shui consultant, Sharon Ball, said she’d even paint the jail walls a soothing pink or blue to calm inmates.

“You don’t want them to be anxious,” she said.

But Skvarna will have to settle for feng shui-ing only a few offices, mainly by repositioning desks. There isn’t much support in the department for doing more. Most of his colleagues, it would seem, aren’t in touch with their chi, or cosmic energy.

Many note, however, that Skvarna always appears happy.

“He brings a lot of sense of humor and a sense of caring to people he works with,” Sgt. Bill Taylor said.

Others Call It ‘Silly,’ Say It’s Not Practical

Feng shui has yet to catch on with other police departments. “That’s a hard concept for a large organization like ours,” said Sgt. John Pasquariello of the Los Angeles Police Department.

“It might be a good thing, but it might not be practical.”

Even city buildings in Monterey Park, which has a large Chinese population, don’t use feng shui. Mayor Francisco Alonso called it “silly.”

“This is not a scientific thing,” Alonso said. “It’s a faith-based belief system. . . . You believe it because you believe it.”

Lt. Craig Rossiter of the Vacaville Police Department, however, said Skvarna convinced him that the design of a building affects the moods of its inhabitants.

Rossiter said he hopes feng shui principles will be applied when his department moves to a new building in three years.

“You want your employees, especially police officers, to feel good about coming to work . . . [you] want a warm and inviting environment,” Rossiter said.

Michael Gelles, a psychologist with the International Assn. of Chiefs of Police, said he doesn’t know much about feng shui, but he applauds any effort to ease officer stress.

“It’s different from the captain just saying, ‘Make the coffee stronger and let the guys eat doughnuts,’ ” Gelles said.