Coworking spaces is all about bringing the best you to work. Studies have shown (HBR) that employees at range of companies who use Coworking and shared spaces have reported feeling on a scale of 10, 7/10 that they are thriving in a coworking space. This is as opposed to working from home or a traditional office.
Freelancers or companies who used Coworking spaces on a day to day basis found that their work seemed more important. What can explain this interesting phenomenon? Unlike a traditional office space, people in a coworking space find themselves working with a community of like minded individuals, all working on different companies and projects.
Coworking spaces are normally open 24/7 and this gives employees and freelancers more job control. The added time and flexibility means people can work anytime, without added pressure. Most of all, coworking gives members a sense of community. They get the opportunity to work with others and enjoy the opportunity to network and socialize with other companies.
Working from home creates a number of issues, but coworking manages to eliminate most of these problems. This is worth addressing because the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that one in four of U.S. workers works from home, at least some of the time (BLS). Yahoo also encouraged employees to leave the home office for their coworking office spaces (All Things D), because as Marissa Mayer said in her memo, “Speed and quality are often sacrificed when we work from home.”. Steve Gillman of the blog the PennyHoarder notes that working from home has many issues that include: Interruptions, Lack of Discipline, Isolation, Longer Hours, Less Work/Home Life Separation, Lack of Professionalism and even Relationship Issues. At home you use email almost all the time to communicate, when your team is right there in person it makes communication that much easier. When you work from home you miss out on many business opportunities you get from networking.
In a Coworking space or shared office space, companies have reported being able to get sales leads from other companies in the space working alongside them (MUSE)! At home you lose valuable social opportunities, coworking spaces allow for more downtime, think company Lunches. Coffee! Happy Hours! Great amenities are lacking at the home office. Coworking spaces often have fast Wifi and great AV equipment. Here are a few more working from home activities that create time sucks that waste your productivity:
- You often find yourself starting your day without a real plan, you might get sucked up in a house chore or get lost with a web browser tab you left open from the night before.
- You find yourself drifting off to social media, or texting a friend. Being relaxed at home is great for peace of mind, but it can really eat into your productivity.
- Working with the TV on. Picture this: you are on the couch and you’ve got your laptop open but the TV is on in the background. This can make work sloppy and sometimes you’ll get lost in your favorite show.
- Surfing the web, this is a big one that we often forget. But it becomes cumbersome at home when we have no one around to give us that nudge to be more productive.
- Not getting enough exercise. This is a common issue when working from home, you can lose track of time when you are in your full comfort zone and forget basic needs like exercise.
Coworking has ultimately allowed people to give method and meaning to their work, it makes them feel free to conquer any new challenge. It also lets them avoid these common problems that would afflict them when they worked from home.
There are many reasons why we’ve seen an influx in coworking spaces the past few years. Our economy is changing and more people are being displaced from typical 9 to 5 jobs.There’s also been a boom in the startup space. These startups don’t run on a typical schedule and they love the flexibility of the Coworking spaces. Workers who have chosen an independent lifestyle are moving away from working at home. They cite that distractions from the home office make Coworking and shared spaces a much more ideal alternative.
