What is co-working?
“We are social creatures, working for yourself should not mean working “by” yourself.”
a Co-working office gives remote workers the community they need
While co-working is not a new idea, it is certianly gaining in popularity. The number of people working remotely is steadily growing and with it grows the need for suitable work-spaces. As inviting as the kitchen table seems in the beginning, hiding from screaming children and ignoring the laundry pile gets old and drains much needed brain-power.
There are many benefits to co-working such as biscuits and non-tempremental wifi connections, but hands down the number one thing that sells coworking is the sense of community. When working for ourselves as well as by ourselves, seeing other humans requires thoughts, arrangements, google calendars, wall calendars, rearrangements, pub quizes and so on. While I am not an advocate of gossiping in the photocopier-room, a co-working office proffers the occasional ‘Hello, how is it going?’ without the aforementioned organisation minefield.
“Working in an office with other people working on their own things is incredibly motivating - or is that just my competitive side?”
What we realise, often later than is good for us, is that working alone is hard. Leaving aside the emotional aspect, if there is no one in the room with you the temptation to click onto Facebook or read another completely irrelevant newsletter is very strong. Working in an office with other people who are working on their own things is incredibly motivating - at least it is for the competitive among us! Unbeknown to them, the other people in the office are my silent accountability partners.
The shared working environment is for work-at-home professionals, independent contractors and people who combine work and travel. It offers a remedy to the feeling of isolation and provides a platform from which we can share ideas, knowledge, milk and printer paper. A great part of sharing ideas in a co-working office is that the people are often from entirely different walks of life and work in a variety of industries.
Offices such as these combine the freedom of working from home and the practicality of a ready-to-use work space. But above all, it's about communitity. While the evidence suggesting that people work best when surrounded by others is yet to be collected by the scientists, anecdotally we can be sure that we are social creatures who can achieve much when we collaborate and share