Why do remote workers have more fun? Co-working spaces.

Before the coronavirus pandemic, Andrew Slaughter began his workday fighting morning traffic—usually between 15 and 40 minutes—on his way to the LabCorp office in Durham, NC’s Research Triangle Park, where, as a proposal manager, he puzzled the lab service. costs associated with clinical trials.

During the pandemic, Mr. Slaughter worked from home, but he was eager to return to the office, and for good reason: his wife runs a small preschool in their home, where an average of 10 children per day romp and chat in the sandbox during snack time and participate in sing-alongs.

“It can be a little distracting,” said Mr. Slaughter, retiring to a small desk in his bedroom. “It’s not like I could go anywhere in the house.”

When LabCorp told its employees they would be returning to the office, Mr. Slaughter discovered he had no office to return to – his job had been made “completely remote”. Like many companies, LabCorp reduced office space, finding that employees were just as effective — and often happier — working from home.

Mr. Slaughter was eager to escape the daily chaos of his home and found a solution in a co-working space. The concept was not new: the spaces were already popular as a cheap way to rent offices by sharing the costs for snacks, office machines and industrial internet connections. But as the pandemic brought in more remote workers, co-working spaces have found a small but growing market among displaced workers like Mr. Slaughter, who crave a busy office away from the distractions of the refrigerator, couch, TV, and the singing of toddlers. The wheels on the bus.”

Mr. Slaughter chose a property called the American underground, located in a former bank on Main Street in the center of Durham. The American Underground not only offers office facilities, but also social activities such as bingo nights, happy hours and a snack and coffee shop. (He pays $150 a month for the space.) But for Mr. Slaughter, the highlight was the change in his commute.

“Instead of driving to Research Triangle Park, I can ride my bike here,” said Mr. Slaughter.

While there is quite a bit of research on coworking spaces, most of it has focused on entrepreneurs, who have typically been the main clients. But while Travis Howell, an assistant professor of strategy and entrepreneurship at the University of California, Irvine, conducted interviews at the U.S. Metro in an effort to study those entrepreneurs, he kept finding refugee workers instead.

“It was annoying at first,” he said. “I just took them out of my research because it wasn’t who I wanted. But then I realized this is becoming something.”

Mr Howell has focused his research on those workers, who have grown to make up 16 percent of America’s underground residents, he said. (Other collaborating organizations, including Regus And Stretched outhave reported similar numbers.)

While his research continues, it seems that entrepreneurs and laid-off workers like coworking spaces for different but overlapping reasons.

Entrepreneurs and start-ups appreciate that coworking spaces offer short-term leases, that the setting lends a layer of legitimacy, and that they can turn to people from other companies for advice. But business workers have those benefits through their companies and, in the case of consulting, their peers. What displaced workers lack is community. “They could have worked from home,” Mr Howell said. “But the reason they gathered themselves in the co-working spaces is because of the people.”

It can be elusive to define what makes community. In a company, people are connected by their department, project, or boss (sometimes through a shared animosity). The random nature of co-working spaces allows for ‘self-selection’, which often colors the culture of a particular location.

For example, the co-working location of diligent in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, has become a hot spot for young parents. (The company has more than 160 locations in more than 65 cities internationally.) People bond over issues related to their children, said Jamie Hodari, co-founder of Industrious, as well as what he calls “non-work related similarities,” such as dog ownership or bowling. .

Some co-working spaces are dedicated to specific groups, including Hera Huba seven-site operation for female entrepreneurs, and Merel Housea Culver City, California, space dedicated to women of color, which is considering expansion to six other cities.

Blackbird House, the physical space of an organization called the Blackbird Collective, which opened in 2019, has found a lucrative niche with such notable speakers as Kamala Harris, Stacey Abrams, and Alfre Woodard. “It’s no small thing to be part of a collective of equals who understand the journey of being in rooms where no one looks like you,” said Bridgid Coulter Cheadle, the company’s founder. Blackbird House suffered during the pandemic, she said, but achieved operating profitability upon reopening. “We’re looking at how you scale this up.”

What some like most about the co-working community is the ability to ignore it. Jonathon Newby, a lead product designer for San Francisco-based Zendesk Labs, could easily work from home developing software that connects businesses with their customers. During the day he has his house to himself, distracted only by a bit of street noise and his dog.

“I’m a bit of a homebody,” said Mr Newby, “but too much of anything is too much.” So he visits an Industrious facility in Indianapolis, though he says he doesn’t interact with other workers, doesn’t know anyone’s name, and definitely skips the pizza parties. Yet his creativity is stimulated by other workers buzzing around him. “It’s nice to be around there, even if I don’t know them,” he said. “It’s an atmosphere.”

That vibe hasn’t caught on with investors, though, says Nicholas Bloom, an economics professor at Stanford University who studies homeworkers. Investors don’t necessarily look at coworking spaces in terms of occupancy or popularity, but as a generic real estate asset in a crowded office market. The commercial downsizing that has driven workers to co-working spaces has also resulted in a surplus of office space with declining values.

From the research of Dr. Bloom shows that between November 2021 and January 2022, about 45 percent of U.S. workers ages 24 to 64 worked remotely. Most worked from home, but a third were almost evenly split between co-working spaces, public places such as coffee shops and libraries, and friends’ homes.

However, sometimes the cost of remote work, which typically ranges from $50 per day to $400 per month, doesn’t come out of the pocket of the employees. Zendesk, where Mr. Newby works, offers homeworkers an allowance for a home office or co-working space. “The business advantage is that we provide a great employee experience,” said Niamh McGarty, senior human resources director at Zendesk, “which has enhanced our ability to attract and retain diverse talent.”

And Zendesk isn’t alone in encouraging employees to embrace the co-working lifestyle. When Jennifer Barbush, a pension administrator for MetLife, worked from her home in Citrus Park, Florida, her two children, ages 2 and 5, usually interrupted her day.

They need attention, she said. “My eight-hour day turned into a 12, 13-hour day.”

When returning to the office became possible, she was unenthusiastic about the 30-40 minute journey to a sterile suburban office park. She wondered if she should consider changing jobs. Instead, she was allowed to join a co-working space in Ybor City, closer to her home.

“Instead of working in one big suburban office where you need a car to go somewhere, now I can go to Tampa with the cart,” she said. She happily keeps her job.