By: Katie Pownall
As many countries begin the careful transition back to pre-pandemic normality, employers and employees alike are wondering what the future of work has in store. So many of us have come to find working from home is preferable to office working, but at the same time working from home does have some limitations. Therefore, lots of us are considering what other options might be out there that suit our needs better. One thing is certain – employers demanding that employees work in offices used solely by their company is feeling very outdated now! So what alternatives are there?
New Alternatives
By far one of the most popular alternatives is co-working. Co-working spaces are shared office spaces often used by employees of many companies for usually 2 or 3 days a week. For the rest of the week these employees are able to work from home. Rather than feeling chained to a desk, co-working spaces offer the option of a productive working environment without the expectation that you will be there from 9am until 5pm Monday to Friday. The flexibility they offer is so appealing to many people who have found that working from home is much better for fitting their personal life and responsibilities around their work life, but who miss the calm nature of an office space, away from home distractions.
A New world
Co-working spaces are one thing to have emerged over the past year that just makes so much sense. We are living in a very different world to the one we knew a year ago, and it’s clear that lots of things that were the norm a year ago were not the best designed option. We have had the perfect opportunity to re-evaluate the systems and protocols that were in place and see how they fit in the modern world. While breaking from tradition can be scary, it usually leads to progress, which we should all be striving for. Lots of employers have come to value the dedication of their employees to their jobs through the last 12 months, and as such have come to understand that often they know how they work best. The option of using co-working spaces is therefore perfect for giving employees agency to determine where they work.
Co-working is here to stay!
Over the next few months, as social distancing guidance is relaxed and social mixing becomes more acceptable, it seems clear that co-working spaces will be more popular than ever before. Providing people with a great location to work, without being distracted by their colleagues, but with other people around to help to hold themselves accountable, co-working spaces seem destined to be the office working solution for the years to come. It doesn’t seem like it will be long before company offices are a thing of the past – co-working spaces are here to stay!