Co-Working Spaces - Thoughts?

[winnied]

I have an employee who moved awhile back to where she lives now. She's a very social person and is basically getting pretty down working out of her home, alone. There is a co-working space in her city (I used to live there) and I've thought about suggesting it. Have you used one? Liked it? Disliked it? 

[orangello]

I've used one - WeWork. It's AWESOME. There's a good mix of larger groups and singles, and it has tons of amenities (conference rooms, printers, IT support for using their meeting facilities, BEER, etc.). They also have spaces that you can get for just the day, and more permanent arrangements. If she's feeling isolated, I'd highly recommend using this.

[genet313]

Jul 30, 2015 13:52:36 GMT -5 orangello said:

I've used one - WeWork. It's AWESOME. There's a good mix of larger groups and singles, and it has tons of amenities (conference rooms, printers, IT support for using their meeting facilities, BEER, etc.). They also have spaces that you can get for just the day, and more permanent arrangements. If she's feeling isolated, I'd highly recommend using this.

I haven't worked in one, but I've been to meetings in a couple of them and the are highly functional and look pretty cool.  Might be a nice option if she can get a short term, trial period lease.

[niq]

I used one for a few days at my last job. I really like it. I totally suck at WFHing, even if I do the "dress like you would for work/set a 1 hour block for chores and don't do any outside of that" thing I can't do it for 8 hours. But the coworking space was great.

The space I was at was pretty minimal. Basically a desk, wifi, some conference rooms. Mostly seemed to be used by solo consultants or tiny startups. It was 3 blocks away from home, so I went home for lunch and folded some laundry.

[msmerymac]

I use one about once a week and work from home the rest of the time.

It's not really as social as working in a big office with other people, since you don't have to coordinate anything with anyone else in the space, but they do try to bring people together. There are networking events, happy hours, and of course it's all open concept (with phone rooms and a conference room bumped out) so you can overhear other people and also people watch. Plus sometimes you talk to people in the elevator.

The one I work in does happy hour on Friday, lunch once a month, different kinds of talks, pitch meetings on Wednesdays so other people can learn what you do. Sometimes we do a big happy hour with other coworking spaces (there are at least 4 or 5 in my city).

The space itself is really cool, too. They did one floor, then expanded to another and the second floor is even MORE cool (16 foot ceilings, exposed concrete and duct work, fun, large art pieces, a roof deck, an integrated keg system in the kitchen area, stairs to the roof deck). It's also in a really nice, urban neighborhood. I take the train from my suburb and it's nice to take myself to lunch or run some fancy shopping errands if I need to do that.

I agree that it also helps me focus, unlike being home with my cats and laundry.

ETA: Price. It's really reasonable, IMO. I get 5 days a month (floating desk) for $99. I think a permanent desk every day is $400, but there are other levels in between. You can also get a 2-3 private office. 

[winnied]

Thanks, guys. This is helpful! We'll see when we talk tomorrow how open she is to the idea.