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Several years ago, the firm I worked for closed with no notice. It was a nasty mess that is still dragging through the bankruptcy court. Several months before we closed, we moved into some brand new buildings in a city with a bad history (at one time the murder capital of California), but had given huge breaks to a developer and was improving their image.
The buildings were built on the local equivalent of the Tenderloin, the location of what had been the bars and certain establishments providing various illegal services and products. There were a number of murders, unexplained deaths, terrible happenings of all kinds there, for decades. I think it's fair to assume that a lot of bad energy had built up there.
There were reports of delays because of an unusual number of bad injuries during construction. The day before the buildings opened to the lessees, the management company was taking a tour and the head of the group dropped dead in the building we ended up moving into. We should have taken that omen seriously.
The offices and workstations were horrible. The office manager had selected workstations that looked liked bad Ikea, but cost four times as much. We were given a preview of the workstations and we hated them. A survey was even set up on our opinions, but the opinions went straight to the office manager, who deleted them. The offices were glass, with sliding doors. Just flippin' horrible for a law office. The carpets were in that industrial stuff, the color of which was a cross between mustard and baby poop. A friend/coworker told us that the feng shui was really bad. Her mother studied feng shui and had taught her quite a bit. The way the buildings were set up, the direction they faced, even the landscaping was all wrong. It always felt cold and uncomfortable there. People started quitting, something that was very unusual at this firm.
We didn't suffer for long, as the firm shut down less than a year later.
About a month later, I was contacted by a few of the attorneys from the closed firm, who asked me to come work with them at the new firm. They were temporarily located in the cursed building. I was thrilled to be back with them, as they were a great group to work with. But the weird in the now nearly empty building became much more obvious.
Our badges restricted us to the parking garage, the floor we were on, and part of the lobby. We had to use our badges in the elevators, and they would limit us to the floors we could go to. Several times a day, we would hear the door from the elevators open and close, but no one would be there. There were only about 15 of us, so there weren't a bunch of people going in and out.
We had a contract person to handle mail, copying, supplies, etc. He told me that, the first day he came into the building, he pushed the elevator call button and all three elevators popped open. He stepped forward and they all closed and left for the top floor. He did get an elevator on the next try, but it freaked him out a bit. He was the first one in in the mornings, and he would check whenever he heard the door from the elevators bang while he was alone. At least once a morning, there would be no one there. As I mentioned, this would continue through the day.
One day, I got off the elevator, but my badge wouldn't open the door to the floor. I kept trying. I finally called a coworker from my mobile. I waited and waited, but no one came. I called her again. She said she had gone to the door, but no one was there. I'm starting to freak a bit. I tried calling the elevator, but it wouldn't come. Remember, we were pretty much the only people in the building, so it wasn't like the elevators were ferrying people all day long. I kept hitting the button, and an elevator finally showed. I badged it and hit my floor number. That's when I realized that the elevator had dropped me on the wrong floor. And when it dropped me off, it had turned off the floor button, as if it were on the correct floor.
We finally moved out, to another building I had worked in for a previous firm. (I don't need deja vu, I live it.) After we left, several other companies in those buildings went under, or were acquired. Another one just announced that it was closing this month.
So imagine how I felt when I found out that our office was checking out the property, to possibly move there.
The buildings were built on the local equivalent of the Tenderloin, the location of what had been the bars and certain establishments providing various illegal services and products. There were a number of murders, unexplained deaths, terrible happenings of all kinds there, for decades. I think it's fair to assume that a lot of bad energy had built up there.
There were reports of delays because of an unusual number of bad injuries during construction. The day before the buildings opened to the lessees, the management company was taking a tour and the head of the group dropped dead in the building we ended up moving into. We should have taken that omen seriously.
The offices and workstations were horrible. The office manager had selected workstations that looked liked bad Ikea, but cost four times as much. We were given a preview of the workstations and we hated them. A survey was even set up on our opinions, but the opinions went straight to the office manager, who deleted them. The offices were glass, with sliding doors. Just flippin' horrible for a law office. The carpets were in that industrial stuff, the color of which was a cross between mustard and baby poop. A friend/coworker told us that the feng shui was really bad. Her mother studied feng shui and had taught her quite a bit. The way the buildings were set up, the direction they faced, even the landscaping was all wrong. It always felt cold and uncomfortable there. People started quitting, something that was very unusual at this firm.
We didn't suffer for long, as the firm shut down less than a year later.
About a month later, I was contacted by a few of the attorneys from the closed firm, who asked me to come work with them at the new firm. They were temporarily located in the cursed building. I was thrilled to be back with them, as they were a great group to work with. But the weird in the now nearly empty building became much more obvious.
Our badges restricted us to the parking garage, the floor we were on, and part of the lobby. We had to use our badges in the elevators, and they would limit us to the floors we could go to. Several times a day, we would hear the door from the elevators open and close, but no one would be there. There were only about 15 of us, so there weren't a bunch of people going in and out.
We had a contract person to handle mail, copying, supplies, etc. He told me that, the first day he came into the building, he pushed the elevator call button and all three elevators popped open. He stepped forward and they all closed and left for the top floor. He did get an elevator on the next try, but it freaked him out a bit. He was the first one in in the mornings, and he would check whenever he heard the door from the elevators bang while he was alone. At least once a morning, there would be no one there. As I mentioned, this would continue through the day.
One day, I got off the elevator, but my badge wouldn't open the door to the floor. I kept trying. I finally called a coworker from my mobile. I waited and waited, but no one came. I called her again. She said she had gone to the door, but no one was there. I'm starting to freak a bit. I tried calling the elevator, but it wouldn't come. Remember, we were pretty much the only people in the building, so it wasn't like the elevators were ferrying people all day long. I kept hitting the button, and an elevator finally showed. I badged it and hit my floor number. That's when I realized that the elevator had dropped me on the wrong floor. And when it dropped me off, it had turned off the floor button, as if it were on the correct floor.
We finally moved out, to another building I had worked in for a previous firm. (I don't need deja vu, I live it.) After we left, several other companies in those buildings went under, or were acquired. Another one just announced that it was closing this month.
So imagine how I felt when I found out that our office was checking out the property, to possibly move there.
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