Enter The Coworking Era
Space sharing is a trending occurrence, but what does it say about the office environment?
One of the undeniable effects of the modern, connected era is that the idea of a nine to five office worker is becoming less and less relevant. Because many companies needn’t have a full time workforce—as well as the office space and overhead that entails—in order to get through the required workload, they allow or even encourage their employees to work from home or have a more flexible work setup.
However, this fact can be both a boon and a curse for work-life balance. There are more and more contract workers, remote workers, freelancers, entrepreneurs and gig workers enjoying an unstructured and flexible work setup, and these groups also face the danger of having no separation between their work responsibilities and their personal lives. After all, when your kitchen table becomes your office, it can be hard to identify when the work day ends and dinner time begins.
Office Space
For this reason, we’ve seen a huge uptick in the number of coworking spaces globally. These spaces offer the benefit of a flexible working environment without the downside of the isolation of working at home. Many of these coworking hotspots are in cities and urban environments where creative industries are clustered, and thus there are many of these types of new-era workers. As the website coworkinglondon.com stated, “We welcomed 2016 with 7800 coworking spaces worldwide as opposed to 3400 in 2013. Only within the last 12 month there has been an increase of +36% of new spaces opening worldwide. And the trend seems to only go upwards.”
Boosting Moral
Thanks to their Silicon Valley associations, there is a perception that coworking spaces host only a handful of tech founders and elite entrepreneurs, but that is simply not the case. Corporate workers are also increasingly using these spaces, as it’s been found that “detaching from the formal business environment as well as reducing the commute time increases employees’ satisfaction with 65%. These employees would also have access to a community of like-minded professionals from a range of industries – a rich pool for new ideas and inspiration.”
Indeed, in the internet era there are myriad other benefits to coworking spaces beyond the obvious. Here is a list of some of them:
Community
Working alone at your kitchen table over an extended period of time can have deleterious effects on mental health, particularly if you’re an extroverted person. Working with others—even if you’re not working on the same thing, or even for the same company—can help with focus and morale. It can also provide ideas, inspiration and cross pollination of industries. Whether it’s taking lunch breaks at the same time or heading out for post-work happy hour, being around other people is good for creativity and the effects of this don’t have to be limited to workers in the same company.
Focus
Working at home can often breed distraction. Whether it’s doing the dishes or answering the door, home contains other responsibilities that dedicated workspace doesn’t. In addition, having a small element of routine and timing can help workers maintain the same productivity they have in an office setting, without the rigidity that can lead to burnout and complacency.
Professionalism
Just because freelancers and remote workers don’t have an office doesn’t mean they don’t occasionally have meetings with clients and partners. Having a coworking space that can be used as a formal meeting space can help give the right impression to potential clients—much better than a kitchen table or a coffee shop.
Pooling resources
Home office costs can add up when you have to create a working environment that’s commensurate to one at home. A coworking space can offer the amenities that coworkers occasionally need—such as a printer, scanner, meeting space and high-speed wifi—without asking them to front the entire expense.