"Coworking" Space

My daughter is about to graduate college and has a full-time job offer at a company called 25N.

I think this is one of those “new” companies that has benefitted from the COVID experience, and appears to likely be around for quite sometime.

I’m curious about thoughts/opinions of others about this idea (including if you’d consider paying a monthly “rent” for a regular space). I’m especially interested in hearing from people who currently use these sorts of work arrangements (either for a one-off need or on a regular basis)–or know people who fit this description.

My business is part of a startup/business incubator that offers coworking space. Basically I can rent desks at a fairly inexpensive rate, and did so pre-covid. The accomodations IMO look like something out of the 1900’s, just a huge swathe of desks with no dividers.

There’s a few benefits (compared to wfh).

  • meeting rooms
  • kitchens and a nice spot to eat lunch
  • interaction with other businesses. I could chat with other small business folks about things like marketing, staff, what they do, etc. Mostly it was just general office chatter.
  • I had a desk beside a coop student working for another startup. On their next coop, we hired them because we already knew they were good workers. And that coop is starting with us FT in may now that they’re graduating. So, some benefits to comingling.

Drawbacks:

  • it’s not wfh
  • commute time
  • never found their desks nor their chairs to my liking.
  • more defined hours since you’re there or you’re not (i.e. at home I can take an hour off, or multi-task with some home stuff). But if you’re getting distracted at home then coworking is going to be better.
  • when I started, I wasn’t used to noise, like people taking loud sales calls all day long. I had to get a pair of headphones and start listening to music while I worked. That wasn’t a dealbreaker, but it’s not my preference. When I had calls, I’d book a room.

I was wfh for almost 20 years. THen I was in the coworking space for about 6 months pre-covid then I’ve been wfh again since then. No plans to return to the coworking space.
Basically the advantages are you get some personal interaction. I already get that with WFH anyway (I try and get out, and spouse is WFH as well, plus we video conference probably once a day) so I don’t see it as a huge advantage. But not a huge disadvantage either.
Oh I guess the other thing is, I have a large home office with an great view. If I was hacking away at the kitchen table, then I’d definitely be down for coworking space.

1 Like

Nice humble brag.

When I started my first job, we had a tech/coding person that WFH and only occasionally flew in to the office to help with coding stuff. WFH was such a dream situation to me back then, and it was like my ultimate goal.

Welp, I’ve reached that goal now.

Seems that this might be a benefit . . . I know that I’d have a hard time with WFH if I didn’t have a “dedicated” space for work that is generally out-of-sight when I’m “not working”.

I continue to look for coworking space near where my mom lives, because the internet in her town is atrocious. If I want to visit her for anything longer than a week (or buy a second home near her to be able to help with aging in place), I need a stable internet connection to be able to continue to work from “not my home”, and a coworking space “should” be cheaper than funding the expansion of internet away from the state route/highway through her rural area.

1 Like

I left my actuarial pricing position to go self employed and wfh. I was running an actuarial bookstore in Canada at the time, which gave me the cashflow to leave.
It was early times back then, I couldn’t even get LTD because their underwriters denied anyone who was 100% wfh.
In terms of workspace, I think my office is like 8 or 9 by 12 or 14, it’s a good size. Window overlooks the back yard and it’s decorated exactly the way I like it. Chair I like, two desks, dual monitors, wall of bookshelves, etc. Comfy.
My coop students seem to work either in the laundry room, their bedroom, or the kitchen table. This term I regularly can hardly hear our coop because mom’s doing dishes in the sink and it’s loud. Last term we’d be on a video call and the door would slam open and bang into the back of their chair, mom would walk buy with a load of laundry. I’d yell 'Hi Mom!" and they’d carry on their way lol. Yeah, that’s a good argument for coworking/shared spaces.

1 Like

This is one of WeWork’s top bullet points. (That and ‘free beer’!)

I currently have a coworking membership that’s about a 10 minute drive from my house. (will be 25 minute bicycle ride once the weather improves.) Previously I had a coworking space about 30 minute commute from my house. I prefer the current arrangement, because:

→ get out of the damn house
→ get to see people & chat with them. Coffee is available, but is wasted on me. I use the refrigerator to store fruits and veggies for snacking.
→ creates barriers between “work” and “home” that didn’t exist when I was strictly WFH. Even the commute is a good thing to get my mind off work and relax.
→ previous space was a little cheaper monthly, yet it also had a much larger community that was more aligned with what I was doing then (creative, entrepreneurial). I just didn’t like that much commute, and especially during high-traffic times it got bogged down. I really liked the people there.

Ideally, I’ll be working remote but not from home, and then traveling to a central office for something like a week per quarter to actually interact with teammates.

2 Likes

FYI, membership is month-to-month and at 3 different levels:

$250 / month or $20 / session gets you access 6 am - 6 pm, you can come in and use the facilities (internet, power, coffee, etc)
$350 / month (what I have) gets you above with 24/7 access, plus you can claim a permanent desk and put stuff inside the drawers or leave on top of the work area.
$450 / month gets the above and a larger dedicated cubicle with 2 monitors.

1 Like

I occasionally go to a coworking space in my city. At first, I just paid the per visit fee to get a feel for the place, then went with a basic monthly membership.

Ownership changed a few months back and the manager who let me use meeting rooms and empty offices for Zoom calls and working gratis left. :frowning_face:

1 Like

For those who use the co-working spaces, does your company pay the monthly fee, or part of it?

1 Like

I’m currently paying it, as a self-employed business expense. (Side gig is freelance writing.) I’ve negotiated that the company (new job starting soon) will pay for this.

2 Likes

What type of writing?

I think you’re looking at it!

1 Like

I give folks the option of wfh or desk space that I pay for. So far, everyone chooses wfh.

long-form written content for quantitatives. I prefer to write articles, case studies, and white papers for data scientists, engineers, and actuaries. Though I can do many other such contents for other industries, I’ve tended to do best at that discipline for that market.

Interesting. Far better than what I’m writing (non-technical content).
I could make decent wages just doing this, low pressure just sitting at the computer. If only I could bear to write that much on insurance.
I’m surprised at how many people here are doing non-traditional work.