Coworking Hype of the Week

OK, coworking is something I take seriously—I’ve been writing about them for quite a while now [2].

As I have said from the beginning, you can do coworking anywhere. 

So I wasn’t surprised to see the announcement that a coworking company plans to open a work space on Mars [1]. 🙂

Huh.  I mean, this is obviously just a stunt.  It’s easy enough to imagine a coworking space on Mars, it’s quite another to actually create one.  (Not that I expect a Mars colony any time soon.)

But let’s do imagine it.  What would it take to make this real?

One thing I noticed immediately is that the headline claims that they “bought an acre” on Mars.  Excuse me?  Who did you buy it from, and who says they own it to sell?  (We know the answers are probably, “Elon” and “Elon”.)

But this leads to questions like, what kind of rental contract would the work space use?  What currency was this contract denoted in? How will the contracts be enforced?  (The probably answers are “some kind of blockchain thing”, “some kind of cryptocurrency”, and “Elon”.)

Leaving these mechanics aside, the more important question is, what is the business model here?  

Assuming that there are actual colonists on Mars, live colonists, how many of them will need a coworking space?  What will they want to do in a coworking space? 

It’s hard to know exactly what the economy of this colony might be, or what kinds of work people will do there.  Specifically, how many office workers will there be, and how many will need or want to rent office spaces?  I.e., how many potential customers will there be, and what will they need and want? 

For the moment, let’s assume that there will be at least some office workers, and they will need desks and internet (maybe they live in a pod with nothing but a bed).  And let’s assume we’re building a workspace similar to coworking spaces on Earth.  Let’s look at costs and opportunities.

How much will it cost to fabricate the building with a livable environment and furnishings?  I don’t know.  Presumably, the colony will have technologies and skills to do this, though I don’t know what they plan WRT the construction business.  But it’s not cheap to build something like this on Earth, so it’ll be pricey on Mars, too.

Which means that rents could be pretty steep for everything, including work space. 

What will workers get besides a desk and network infrastructure? Well, it’s highly unlikely there will be coffee service or other glitzy amenities. There may be erzatz “coffee” on Mars, and “snacks”, but luxuries imported from Earth will be very expensive.

Workers are going to need to be pulling in a lot of income to afford to live on Mars, let alone rent a coworking desk.  What kind of work will there be on Mars?  How much will it pay?

I have no clue what the economy of this colony may be. There will be people building running the infrastructure. There may be prospecting and mining operations. Will the colony be inhabited by retired billionaires and their serving staff?

The question is, what kind of digital and office work will there be? And how many workers who need a “remote workspace”? Hard to guess.

Now, there is one kind of “remote work” that might be done on Mars—work for consumption on Earth. A lot of stuff that gig workers do on the Internet might be done while living on Mars. If nothing else, “Made on Mars” sounds cool, even if it’s the same result as you could get from some guy living in Boise or Burbank or Bangkok.

There are obvious challenges to remote working from Mars, starting with latency and bandwidth (round trip for email could be half a day).  What kind of work could you do better or cheaper on Mars than on Earth?  Honestly, I would suspect that Mars will outsource a lot of work to the vast low paid hordes of the auld home planet, rather than successfully competing with us.

Now, one possible economic model for a Mars colony would be to try to be a really, really “off shore” haven.  Unregulated finance, stolen data, grey and black markets of various kinds. Basically, Earth authorities have no sway, so Mars could be a pirate’s dream. 

A shell company on Seychelles?  Hell, why not  “Incorporated on Mars”!

And these Buccaneers on Mars will want desk space, yes sir!

It’s an interesting idea, though if you want to run a dark net on Mars, you probably want people on Earth to be able to use it.  And that ain’t going to be easy, and it ain’t going to be easy to hide.  It seems like it would need an Earth-side component that would be very expensive (transmitting packets to and from Mars) and also pretty vulnerable to interdiction. 

So there’s a lot to be worked out, and a lot of unknowns.

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Obviously, I grok that this announcement from BeeRemote is just intended to grab attention, to sell services hear and now.  Whatever deal they did with Elon is obviously BS, and gave Elon an opportunity to plug his imaginary colony, which is coming Real Soon Now.

But, let’s give kudos to BeeRemote for getting us think seriously about what “this”coworking on Mars” would really mean.  This is much more entertaining that most rental office promotions.

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1. BeeRemote, BeeRemote Buys Acre on Mars for Out-of-This-World Co-Working Space, in 24-7 Press Release Wire, February 21, 2023. https://www.24-7pressrelease.com/press-release/498577/beeremote-buys-acre-on-mars-for-out-of-this-world-co-working-space
2. Robert E. McGrath, What is Coworking? A look at the multifaceted places where the gig economy happens and workers are happy to find community, Urbana, Robert E. McGrath, 2018.

What is Coworking? What Will Coworking Become?

How Many Workers Really Can Work Remotely?

The pandemic saw a surge of involuntary working from home. Vast numbers of workers learned how to work from home, for better or worse.  We are all still readjusting, deciding when and how to work remotely.

For a decade and more before that, remote work had been popular with some workers, especially digital workers (e.g., Berkin’s “Year WithoutuPants“).  Remote work is also the key rationale for contemporary coworking, and most of contemporary freelancers are remote workers, i.e., connecting to a larger organization from a coworking space.  Indeed, the “gig economy” drives coworking.

One thing that has become abundantly clear over the last couple of years is that not every kind of work can be done remotely, and not all workers can or should work remotely. 

So, if remote work is “the future of work”, just how prevalent will it ultimately be?

This fall, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics published a report on its survey of “Occupational Requirements” for workers in the US [1].  There is a lot of information here, but one of the items or interest is “telework available”, i.e., jobs where regular remote work is formally approved by employer,i.e., not as part of temporary emergency measures.

In this survey, 10.6% of workers reported the formal option to telework.  This number was extremely variable depending on the type of work, as one would expect.  Many categories such as food preparation, construction, or firefighters (!) reported no remote option.  On the other hand, 78% of “web developers” reported remote work options.

There are a few surprises, such as lawyers (61%) or customer service (21%).  The former is higher than I would expect, and the latter is lower than I would expect.

But the overall point is that, to date, the vast majority (90%) of work in the US is not amenable to remote work, and in many cases cannot be.

Now, this survey is, by definition, backward looking, reporting what is done now, not what may happen in the near future.  Experience during the pandemic certainly revealed that remote working can be done if necessary in a lot of cases we would never have chosen to try (e.g., elementary school). 

So, there certainly could be more telework in the future as the expectations and methods evolve.  Even stuff that sucks today (again, elementary school), might work better if we work on it.

And, I’ll note that, as robots come online, some jobs will effectively become teleoperation, which might become remote work. No need to actually ride on the remote operated garbage truck, just operate it from home.

So who knows.

But for now, it is pretty clear that there is a limit to the number of routine remote workers, and that these workers are concentrated in a few occupations.

Which brings me to coworking.

Coworking spaces have spread everywhere in the early twenty first century.  The backbone of coworkers has generally been digital workers (programmers, data analysts, etc.) and heavily digitized “content developers” (writers, commercial artists, advertising honchos).  These are prime “teleworking” occupations, and coworking is, basically organized, group teleworking.

Coworking enthusiasts imagine their workplaces will continue to grow.  Many seem to imagine that many other types of work will be done in coworking spaces.

This survey offers little support for these rosy scenarios, at least in the short term.  Coworking spaces are well suited for many digital workers, and that will continue for sure.   And it wouldn’t be surprising for more office workers to go remote, and therefore to join coworking spaces near their home (but probably not near their current office).  This might even include lawyers, accountants, and some medical workers (though I would think that privacy and security will be an important issue for these folks).

Heck, we might even see teachers teleworking from coworking spaces, if remote education becomes a norm.

But I’m not seeing pharmacists, firefighters, or farmers spending much time in a coworking space.  Not any time soon.

So, what is the future of coworking?  

To the degree that coworking spaces are filled with teleworkers, there seems to be a distinct limit to the potential demand, because there just aren’t that many workers who actually can work remotely from a coworking space or from home or anywhere.

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1. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Requirements Survey Summary. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Washington DC, 2022. https://www.bls.gov/news.release/ors.nr0.htm

Digital Nomadism for Freelance Workers

One aspect of “The Future of Work” is “Digital Nomadism”, which emerged as a thing at the end of the last century.  Remote working means that you can, theoretically, work from practically anywhere.  So why not tour the world, hanging out and logging in when you need to.

This lifestyle is obviously something for the young and single, but it also meshes with contemporary coworking and freelance working. Only a few companies really do embrace work from literally anywhere (e.g., Berkun’s “year without pants”), so a freelance career is ideal for rootless workers.  And there are similar coworking spaces everywhere, offering useful base camps when you need a printer or something.

Footloose freelancing from anywhere was thoroughly disrupted by Covid, of course. (I have to think that war in Eastern Europe and other tensions probably disrupt things, too.)  We’re all watching to see just how it comes back.

So I was interested to see an item in the Freelancers Union Blog about “Digital Nomadism: A Way to Work From Anywhere.” [1]  (For once, something not about NYC!)

It turns out that this post is specifically talking about the sub-genre of digital nomading, a “gap year with freelancing” thing.  Classic digital nomads are loners, singles or couples travelling independently.  There may be lots of other nomads around, but it’s not a group activity.

But some entrepreneurs organize tours.  We’re all hitching around the Pacific or whereever, so why not get together and travel in a group?

This can combine with coworking spaces, many spaces honor passes that work in many places and welcome interants.  This can lead to “destination coworking”, including, once upon a time, coworking at famous surf beaches of the world.

And now, apparently, the FU is getting in the game, promoting this kind of travel for freelancers.  The blog post is from a company that organizes these treks, and presented a sales pitch at the FU Hub. 

Sigh.

There is so much here to unpack.

The company describes it’s business as “Adventurely connects digital nomads to each other & their new local communities”.   Obviously, they have a different understanding of the word “community” than I do. 

The company is pretty clear that they are basically doing tourism, with a “sustainable” and socially conscious bent.  Where “digital nomads” were once rebellious loners who permanently reject bourgeois life, they are now eco-conscious tourists who also need wifi.  The company boasts that their customers aren’t ragged hippies, they are wealthy, privileged, and no longer young.

Sigh.

At the same time, I see the Freelancers Union* drifting from its gritty labor organizing roots toward branded sales tie ins. 

Sigh.

And, by the way, the Freelancers Hub, which once surely buzzed militantly aout “Freelancing isn’t Free”, is now a place to go to learn about trips to Mexico.

Sigh.

I notice that one of the services that Adventurely seems to help with is how to travel across increasingly closed borders. I’m not surprised. The world isn’t flat any more.  sFive years ago, you could just go wherever you wanted in Europe, from Dublin to Kviv.  Now you can’t.  Crossing the US-Mexico border takes planning and papers.  Hong Kong and Shanghai are no long on the backpacking agenda.  And so on.

So I have to wonder just how well digital nomadism is going to work is this harsh new world.

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1. Adventurely, Digital Nomadism: A Way to Work From Anywhere, in Freelancers Union Blog, October 13, 2022. https://blog.freelancersunion.org/2022/10/13/digital-nomadism-a-way-to-work-from-anywhere/

* Disclosure:  I am a proud member of the FU.

For much more on the Future of Work, see the book and blog  “What is Coworking?”)

What is Cowworking?  What Will Coworking Become?

Freelancing Union Hub in NYC

Back in the mists of time, when modern coworking spaces emerged (circa 2003 and earlier), many of them were effectively worker owned.  Basically, all you need is a group of freelance workers go in together to buy, rent, or just borrow some workspace and basic infrastructure.  The rest just happens—you consistently work and interact with these people, and the group develops into a community.

If you read the very early literature, such as the Coworking Manifesto (originally created probably circa 2005?) [2], you can see this vibe through and through.  It’s all about DIY community, not about “flexible office space” or “amenities”.   It’s creating a new way of work, “to connect and to interact in order to
transform our culture”.

WeWork, this isn’t! 

It’s a bit of a mystery to me why there seem to be so few of these worker-operated coworking spaces. 

Perhaps operating a workspace is too much work, especially for, you know, workers.  Corporate coworking provides professional management and makes things easy for the worker.  Your membership fee essentially pays somebody to take care of all the operational junk so you don’t have to.

It is also true that forming and maintaining a community can be a lot of work, and many of us aren’t so good at it.  Heck, just finding other freelancers near you isn’t a trivial task, let alone getting together to share space.  Corporate coworking professionalizes recruitment, on-boarding, “community management”, and all that stuff.

So DIY, worker-owned coworking is feasible, but not necessarily easy.  So corporate coworking has slipped in and grown to dominate our ideas about coworking.  “Amenities” have replaced “the new economy”.

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The Freelancers Union* offers an interesting third way:  a coworking space for FU members, run by the FU [1].  The union already handles recruitment, etc,. and, evidently, operates the space.

The Coworking Hub has a stripped down classic workspace, similar to coffee shops and coworking spaces everywhere.  The advertised amenities are sparse, especially compared to high end commercial spaces.  A seat.  WiFi.  Coffee (maybe). 

The big draws are (a) low fees and (b) other FU members.  In fact, it appears that it is free for members, with small fees for other services like a locker or a reserved meeting room.  As for the other workers, “above all – have fun and network!”.

From the viewpoint of the FU, this space is an opportunity for members to learn more about the union, and to participate in workshops and other union resources.

So, basically, this is not that different from a common room in any union hall, except with reserved seats.

Obviously, this is a potentially valuable resource for freelance workers, especially during financial droughts.  And for some of us, there is a certain comfort in a worker-owned, worker-operated space rather than a blood sucking corporate “flex space”. (I, for one, wince at the image of a space “flexing” its esophagus to ingest me. Ouch!)

Obviously, the “community vibe” of this space is going to be FU oriented.  You know everyone there is a member, so you have that in common if nothing else.  I expect there will be organizers present and plenty of talk about union stuff.  That may or may not be what I want on a given day, but this is the place to do it.

Putting on my Anthropologist hat, I have to wonder if membership in the FU is enough of a connection to make a good community.  Much will depend on what work the workers are actually doing, right?  And, of course, the other interests of the workers present. I mean, for me the digital ad biz is boring and /or horrifying. No offense. And you probably don’t want to listen to me talk about cool bugs I’ve fixed in Linux code.

Located as it is in NYC, there is a huge and diverse population of freelancers that might visit, but there can only be a dozen or two in this space at a given time.  Just how much do I have to talk about with a given tiny sample of freelance workers?  On the other hand, I would expect that a roomful of FU members will be able to handle racism / sexism / etc-ism issues as well as any group of workers, so that’s good.

I’ll note that the bare bones amenities mean that some workers will not find what they need here.  In particular, there doesn’t seem to be any provision for child care, which means that working parents will have to make their own arrangements.  For that matter, the space is only available during business hours, which doesn’t suit a lot of workers, especially people collaborating with teams across many time zones.

But, no workspace can meet the needs of everyone, so let’s be realistic.

Overall, I like this.  Low cost, low frill coworking has its place, and it shows that the original vision of coworking can still work.

I think it would be great if there were FU Hubs everywhere there are FU members. 

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1. Freelancers Union Admin, Welcome Back to the Freelancers Hub!, in Freelansers Union Blog, September 19, 2022. https://blog.freelancersunion.org/2022/09/19/welcome-back-to-the-freelancers-hub/
2. The Coworking Wiki, Coworking Manifesto (global – for the world) in The Coworking Wiki, 2015. http://wiki.coworking.org/w/page/35382594/Coworking%20Manifesto%20%28global%20-%20for%20the%20world%29

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* Disclosure:  I am a proud member of the FU.

For much more on the Future of Work, see the book and blog  “What is Coworking?”)

What is Cowworking?  What Will Coworking Become?

Freelancing May Be Good for Working Women

And speaking of “being your own boss”….

I had early experience working from home.  I had a 1200 (!) baud dial up modem before anybody else did, and it was so cool!  So I could work all nigh, every night on the dining room table.  I discovered “work-life” balance before most people did.

So, I have to say I’m not a huge fan of work from home.

Except…my friends who are working parents, especially mothers, strongly argue that work from home is super, super valuable.  Because a working mom’s work-life balance needs maximum flexibility.

This summer, Katie Pierce weighs in on the advantages of Freelancing in this equation [1].  Pierce is nothing if not optimistic that you can “Be a Mom, Employee, and Freelancer While Having A Life”, as long as you “know these easy hacks” (and have “a good support network”).

The “hacks” are:

• Stick To A Predictable Working Schedule (including kids, chores, and breaks)
• Don’t Be Afraid To Ask For Help (from “spouse, partner, family, and friends” and possibly hired maid)
• Meal Prep On The Weekends (and get a freezer)
• Create A Workspace (freelancing == dedicated home workspace)
• Be There When Your Family Needs You
• Don’t Forget To Escape And Pamper Yourself

OK, sure.  These are good ideas for working moms. 

I’m not so sure how “simple” they are., though  I mean, “keeping a consistent work schedule” while always “being there when your family needs you” is a description of the problem, not a solution.

And, of course, there are some startling assumptions here.  Your home office is a space “in your house”.  (I don’t have statistics, but I’ll bet most freelancers do not own or even live in a “house”.) In Pierce’s hacks, you have a spouse / partner and family who help you.  And, most glaring of all, “Most families have hired a maid or cleaning services to maintain their house.”  (People in my neighborhood don’t actually have maids.  Some of them are maids Freelance maids, in fact.)

But setting aside these questions, the real point is, how does freelancing qua freelancing make this easier or better for workers?  After all, “freelancing” is a contractual arrangement, which overlaps with but is hardly identical with hybrid remote work. 

The fact is, Pierce’s “hacks” work just as well for permanent employees with hybrid arrangements as for gig workers. They might even work better for employees, because a long-term gig may help keep a consistent schedule and form part of a support network (not to mention a consistent income to pay for freezers, maids, spas, etc. ).  Living from gig to gig isn’t consistent in any way, and often involves insane, deadline driven schedules.

However, the good news is, of course, that as a freelancer you are your own boss.  You can set your own work rules (e.g., I am available for meetings only while my kids are at school).  You may have to forego some gigs if they don’t fit, but that can be better than being forced to take them at the cost of your family’s well being.

So, as Pierce didn’t really explain, freelancing helps working moms because freelance workers can work out their own work-life balance and make it stick.

So, yeah. literally “empowering”.

I’ll add another point: the right coworking space can be a really great thing for working moms.  A coworking space with a lot of working parents who help each other can be another support network.  This alone could be huge.

But it is even better if the coworking space has easy access to flexible child care.  (Working moms probably don’t need coworking “amenities” like video games and boozy social hours.  The valuable “amenities” are people who we trust to watch our kids for an hour while we are in a video meeting.)

So, freelancing may be a good thing for working moms, and the right coworking community could be a very good thing for working moms.

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(Personally, I think Pierce is way too optimistic that freelance working “women can have it all – sometimes even better than men“. I’ve been paying attention to the working world for a half century now, and I’ve never even heard of this happening, except to heiresses

Lets just shoot for “a better life for working families”.)

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1. Katie Pierce, How Women Can Have It All – Be a Mom, Employee, and Freelancer While Having A Life, in Freelancers Union – Blog, August 29, 2022. https://blog.freelancersunion.org/2022/08/29/how-women-can-have-it-all-be-a-mom-employee-and-freelancer-while-having-a-life/

For much more on the Future of Work, see the book and blog  “What is Coworking?”)

What is Cowworking?  What Will Coworking Become?

Han on Some Downsides to A Freelance Career

The Freelancers Union* is, obviously, pro-freelance.  The FU relentlessly advocates for Freelancers and freelancing. So it is especially notable to see coverage of downsides to freelance work in the FU blog.

This summer Jenny Han discusses “All The Mental Health Challenges Faced By Freelancers” [1].

“There’s no doubting then that freelancing is an excellent thing. However, while many people who are engaged in office-based 9-5 employment might look on enviously, freelancing does have its considerable downsides, one of which is difficulties relating to mental health.”

(from [1])

Her list is:

• Screen time (too much)
• Isolation (loneliness)
• No Work-Life Separation
• Lack of Job Security (living from gig to gig)

What to do?  Han recommends: “To avoid running into these troubles, the most important thing is to monitor yourself and find someone to talk to if things start going south.”

Hmm.  I can’t argue with Han, so far as she goes.  But there is a lot more to say here.

For one thing, these issues are hardly news.  These issues have been known for a long time (see, for instance, The Greatest Book In The History Of Coworking [2])  And the pandemic forced millions to work at home, which brought these issues to the forefront.

So, yeah.

One bit of good news is that these woes are hardly unique to freelancers, per se.  The woes of contemporary work are similar for all workers, no matter what their contractual regime.

Too much screen time?   Everybody suffers from this, from babies to pensioners. (At least freelancers are getting paid for destroying their eyes, wrists, back, brain, and very soul.)

Isolation?  Again, everybody suffers from this. There has been much written about the epidemic of loneliness, not just at work, everywhere. And I’ll note that workers feel isolated even as employees of a large organizations.  Actually, social alienation can be worse as part of an organization, when workers feel shut out and powerless. That’s why people freelance in the first place.

Work-Life Balance?  With contemporary technology, everybody are connected all the time, and that’s a big problem for everybody.  And, as the pandemic showed us, working at home is hard on home life, no matter what your contractual situation.

Job insecurity.  Hey! News flash, here. A “permanent” employment contract is scarcely a guarantee of employment.  The difference between a freelance gig and an employment gig is…two weeks notice?

So, overall, the good news is that these psychological challenges aren’t specific to freelancing, per se. And they certainly aren’t caused by freelancing, per se.

But I wouldn’t say that there aren’t any special challenges for freelancers.

For one thing, there are a bunch of psychological challenges that Han didn’t list.

Job Insecurity has a lot of ramifications besides short term contract periods.  Freelancers usually lack benefits that “regular” workers may have, such as health insurance, retirement savings, and on the job training.  Together, this makes life less secure and, as Han says, “can lead down the road towards anxiety.”

I see a constellation of psychological issues surrounding the limited connection a freelance has to the work sponsor.  A permanent employee is personally invested in a bigger project, the work of the whole organization. Obviously, a gig worker explicitly has minimal ownership of the work.  This in turn implies little connection to the larger overall enterprise, and limited personal stake in the results. 

A lack of ownership can mean less job satisfaction.  Work is way, way better if you believe in what you are doing.

And, of course, a freelancer does not have a career or career path within an organization.  Short term contracting precludes some opportunities and potential achievements, e.g., promotion, personal growth, leadership, and building teams.

So, freelancers certainly face psychological challenges.  And the face them alone, which can be a huge challenge.

However, the good news is that the whole idea of freelancing is that you are hour own boss.  So you can address these issues in ways that corporate drones can’t, and ways that fit you and your life. 

And, with all due respect to Han, we can do a whole lot more than “monitor yourself and find someone to talk to”.

Work-Life Balance?  Screen Time?  Set boundaries for your work and enforce them. 

Lack of Benefits?  Join the FU!

And, of course, the entire point of Coworking is to address loneliness and social isolation. 

To recap: work sucks for everyone.  Freelancers are on their own, but freelancers are also their own bosses.  

And, in the end, the plusses and minuses will have different weight and impact for different people.  Some people will thrive as freelancers, others may struggle.    

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* Disclosure:  I am a proud member of the FU.

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1. Jenny Han, All The Mental Health Challenges Faced By Freelancers, in Freelancers Union – Blog, August 30, 2022. https://blog.freelancersunion.org/2022/08/30/all-the-mental-health-challenges-faced-by-freelancers/
2. Robert E. McGrath, What is Coworking? A look at the multifaceted places where the gig economy happens and workers are happy to find community. 2018, Robert E. McGrath: Urbana. https://whatiscoworkingthebook.com/

For much more on the Future of Work, see the book and blog  “What is Coworking?”)

What is Cowworking?  What Will Coworking Become?

Cat Johnson on the Future of Coworking

I’ve been watching carefully to see how the remote work/hybrid work trend plays out.  In particular, I’m seeing it as a huge opportunity for coworking spaces in some form or another.

This summer Sensei Cat Johnson addresses this question in her blog [1].  I’m always interested in her views.

The piece is structured as a list of statistics followed by reflection on what they mean for coworking spaces.

So, for instance, many workers want to work remotely on into the future, at least some of the time.  This is obviously an opportunity for coworking spaces. Indeed, “How will you keep up with demand?”

Working at home saves commute time.  So, coworking spaces should aim to serve local communities, with minimal commute time.

“38% of remote workers admit to regularly working from bed.” : – (  This is “truly awful” Johnson says, and a coworking space can surely beat this as a work experience!

Remote workers are rebalancing their time in various ways.  In general, “People are over the grind.”  Coworking spaces need to recognize and support this.

The rebalancing involves setting boundaries, managing time, and so on.  These things are at the heart of coworking, and a coworking space can really help.

“57% miss the social interactions that come with an in-person workplace.”  This is the basic reason coworking was invented!  This is what a coworking space is for.

And, of course, organizations are trying to deal remote work and hybrid work.  One of the big questions is how will conventional organizations get the most out of coworking spaces.  As Johnson puts it, “Big business is coming your way. Get ready.”

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This is all pretty sensible stuff.  There is little question that there will be plenty of workers who work remotely at least some of the time.  It seems likely that coworking spaces could be an attractive choice for many of these workers, at least some of the time.  Indeed, this is pretty much what coworking was invented for.

One important point is that there seems to be a need for local coworking spaces, i.e., near where workers live.  Giant downtown buildings turned into “flex offices” are not necessarily going to be what workers want.  Close to home may beat out most other features. And note that workers can live anywhere, so coworking spaces are needed out in the flyover states in the US, not just in major cities.

And finally, there are fundamental questions about how conventional organizations can and should use coworking spaces.  What does it mean when “Big Business” comes to coworking?  What will hybrid workers need from a coworking space? 

I dunno, and I’m pretty sure noone really knows yet.

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1. Cat Johnson, 14 Remote Work Statistics (and What They Mean for Coworking), in Cat Johnson  – Blog, July 27, 2022. https://catjohnson.co/remote-work-statistics-coworking

(For much more on the Future of Work, see the book and blog  “What is Coworking?”)

What is Cowworking?  What Will Coworking Become?

What Will Coworking Become? “All Ages Coworking” [repost]

[this was posted earlier here.]

It’s inevitable.  Workers get older every day, and, as most workers discover, new hires get “younger” every day.  Colleagues can be decades apart in life and in work experience.

Coworking spaces have historically skewed toward younger workers, but that isn’t inherently necessary.  Self-selected coworking communities do tend toward peer groups with similar age ranges, which has a feedback effect of attracting more “workers like us”, perpetuating the pattern.

But in the bright new world of post-Covid “hybrid” working, remote working and coworking are for everybody.  Including workers of all ages.

This spring Will Kinnear writes to ask “How Do We Create Space That’s Attractive To All Ages?” [1]  It’s a good question.  What does Kinnear suggest?

“The problem for workspaces is age.”

(from [1])

(Well, a problem is age.)

First of all, I have to say that Kinnear’s analysis of the problem is shallow and mostly wrong.  He imagines that older workers date back to some stone age “without computers, mobile phones or any of the digital technology”.  I hate to break it to you, but these older workers are, in fact, the ones who invented that stuff, and have been using it since before you young whippersnappers were born.  So, no, it’s not about grandma who doesn’t know what a computer is. It’s about workers with a decade or two experience using multiple generations of technology.

Humph.

Anyway, Kinnear is correct that different people have “different expectations for what a workplace should be like, and their needs vary”.  But this is not about technology, it is about culture and experience.  And it is not about age per se.  There are many sources of individual differences in expectation and desires.  (I’d also note that the needs and expectations change according to task and over time—there is no one right answer for all time, even for one worker.)

Kinnear then poses the question,

“So how do you create offices that can suit young talent but also the generation more used to traditional styles of working?”  

Humph.  So there are two kinds of workers, “young talent” and “traditional” non-talent? Right.

Anyway, again.

The main point is, how do you create a workspace in which workers can find a variety of ways to work, to suit their own preferences? 

This is, indeed, the right question.

Unfortunately, Kinnear gives us no answer, except to pay attention to what workers want.  In particular, “Unless a business is only interested in recruiting 25-year-olds, the office space has to appeal to the majority.” (You may wish to consult your legal department about the ramifications of only recruiting people under 30.)

My own view is that this challenge is actually about the social dynamics of the community, not in technology or furniture layout.  Sure, there are features that might attract older workers (child care, for starters) and features that likely won’t (e.g., all night videogame tournaments).  But the thing that will keep older workers is a comfortable set of friendly colleagues of whatever age.  Sound familiar?   That’s what keeps workers of any age.

So focus on the culture, not on the décor and technology.

And, if I might be so bold to suggest:  don’t just hire freshouts as “community managers”.  Include some grey hairs in community leadership.

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1. Will Kinnear, Generational Shift: How Do We Create Space That’s Attractive To All Ages?, in Allwork, April 27, 2022. https://allwork.space/2022/04/generational-shift-how-do-we-create-space-thats-attractive-to-all-ages/

(For much more on the Future of Work, see the book and blog  “What is Coworking?”)

What is Cowworking?  What Will Coworking Become?

What Will Coworking Become? Many Workers Do Not Want To Return To The Office [repost]

[This was posted earlier here]

The pandemic closed most offices and pushed office work to remote and at home.  As the pandemic eases, this unplanned experiment continues, as organizations try to move to a new normal.  Many organizations are going to “hybrid” work, with workers in the office part of the time, and remote part of the time.  Or some workers in the office, and some remote.  Or some other combination. No one is quite sure.

Obviously, the persistence of large numbers of remote workers is an opportunity for coworking spaces, which for many workers potentially can be a better workspace than home.  Is “hybrid work” the future of coworking?  If so, what does it mean for workers, organizations, and coworking communities?   How does coworking work with hybrid work?

Of course, things are still very fluid.  For one thing, it seems that many workers don’t want to go back to the office.  So, when bosses require everyone to come in, workers are resisting.  As Peter Sayer puts it, leaders and workers “don’t see eye to eye” [2].

Leaders have good reasons to want folks face to face, including equity and morale.  (They also have dubious reasons, including “that’s how we’ve always done it”.)  Workers have good reasons to not want to burn time commuting in order to enjoy distractions and lousy work conditions.  (Workers also have dubious reasons, including pure self interest.)

Sayer is report in part on a Microsoft “Work Trends” report, which finds that “making hybrid work, work” requires leaders to consider what workers want [1]. What a concept! 

I’d say the top two challenges for organizations and workers would be:

1. making “flexible” work not “always on”, and
2. creating social bonds within the organization

The former is critical for remote workers, and the latter is critical for organizations.

Working remotely in a coworking space might actually help on both these fronts.  If the organization defines remote work as mostly done in a remote coworking space rather than home, then it can help everyone keep guardrails.  And if groups of remote workers can gather at coworker spaces, they may be able to build social bonds with colleagues without always going to a central office.

Now, I have to say that this is not quite the original, classic model for coworking, which is 100% flexible on the part of the individual worker.  In fact the coworking space would be operating as a form of satellite office for the organization, rather than a space filled with independent gig workers. 

This means, for instance, that there might well be mandatory in-person meetings at your a coworking space–dictated by your boss.  There might also be limitations on how the workers interact with other workers in the coworking space.  Synergy is great within the organization, but not necessarily with competitors!

For coworking operations, it seems clear that there will be demand for this kind of remote satellite office.  This might require, for instance, standing reservations for offices or suites, and as well as support for high end digital infrastructure.  (Laptops and commodity wifi might not be enough for serious collaborative work.)  There might also need to be provisions for meeting clients and for drop in (non-member) workers at meetings.  All this means that there will have to be contractual arrangements beyond the simple membership and desk rental.

Coworking operations will also need to explore the social dimensions of how to get the most out of a community that includes both independent workers and groups that are part of persistent remote teams.  Obviously, having other workers around is probably very good for the mental health of the workers.  But it may not be possible to have unconstrained sharing. Some projects need to lock the door.

In short, we want everyone to interact as much as possible, but not too much! : – )

Just as a ‘for instance’, I can imagine that the old coworking community classics such as social hours might need to be refined.  Workers on a remote 9-5 satellite office may not be interested at a late night kegger with video games.   But they might be very interested in good child care options.

The idea is, of course, to make coworking something that organizations and workers can use to “make hybrid work, work”.  No one knows exactly what that means or what should be done.

But coworking spaces have one huge asset:  they are designed to be better than working at home.  And lots of people now know they want that, at least part of the time.

So we shall see. Fun times.

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1. Microsoft, Work Trend Index 2022: Great Expectations: Making Hybrid Work Work, in Microsoft – Worklab, March 16, 2022. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/worklab/work-trend-index/great-expectations-making-hybrid-work-work
2. Peter Sayer, Return to office? Leaders, workers don’t see eye to eye, study says, in CIO, March 16, 2022. https://www.cio.com/article/306764/return-to-office-leaders-workers-dont-see-eye-to-eye-study-says.html

(For much more on the Future of Work, see the book and blog  “What is Coworking?”)

What is Cowworking?  What Will Coworking Become?

Kidful Cubicles [repost]

[This was posted earlier here]

What is Coworking? It’s gonna’ be kidful.

I have long said that supporting working parents is one of the mountains we have to climb, for all workspaces, but especially for coworking spaces.

In my view, the gold standard will be a full partnership of child care and workspace.

But there are lot’s of variations which could appeal to different families.

This month Sensei Cat Johnson pointed out a furniture solution that addresses this challenge:  the Fairfield Parent+Child Carrel.

Basically it’s a cubicle with a desk and a baby corral attached.  The parental unit is pretty bare-bones, indeed sparse.  The kidful unit is designed as a safe and attractive play space.  The kid is in sight and within reach, but not free to roam.  This enables mom (or, I assume, dad) to have two hands on the computer.

Alissa Walker reports these have been deployed in a public library [1].  She reports these have been well received by library patrons. 

Will we see these in coworking spaces?  Probably.  Is this a complete solution?  Obviously not.  For one thing, it’s really aimed and small kids.  And it’s only really good for when the worker is working alone at a desk.  Meetings will require something more.

And, of course, there surely will be questions about using these in an otherwise open and uncontrolled environment. Stuff happens. Kids make noise, other workers make noise.  Kids will want to play with other kids.  Workers will not want to sit near other people’s kids.  And so on.

Now, I generally don’t consider special furniture to be an especially effective solution to a better workspace and work life.

But this is an interesting and low cost option for some working parents.  If nothing else, having some of these stations is a really clear “welcome” to working parents.

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1. Alissa Walker, Finally, a Desk for Working Parents, in Cubed, January 25, 2022. https://www.curbed.com/2022/01/parent-baby-desk-fairfield-library-carrel.html

(For much more on the Future of Work, see the book and blog  “What is Coworking?”)

What is Cowworking?  What Will Coworking Become?