Why Do People Thrive in Coworking Spaces?

The co-working movement began with entrepreneurs, freelancers, and players in the tech industry. But having witnessed the numerous benefits of co-working, bigger organizations and corporations have also started getting interested in the concept.

Note that bigger organizations like; KPMG, PwC, Pinterest, Airbnb, Microsoft, PepsiCo, GE, Heineken, and several others have already embraced the concept of co-working as a means to rattle the boring corporate culture. People thrive in co-working spaces for different reasons. It may be that it makes them happier, more creative, more inspired, and more engaged in their work.

There is a general view that people who work out of a co-working space tend to thrive, and there is data to back it up. There are some things about co-working spaces that make them better than the traditional office setup. Howbeit, here are the top reasons why people thrive in co-working spaces.

Top Reasons People Thrive in Coworking Spaces

1. Opportunity To Grow

For entrepreneurs, a co-working space is an ideal place to grow their ventures. Have it in mind that a co-working space allows members to interact daily with other entrepreneurs who are at various levels of building their businesses. This allows you to gain from their collective experiences and avoid common pitfalls.

A good number of co-working spaces are also managed by knowledgeable managers who can help point members in the right direction. These spaces also offer members access to a community of people with varying skill sets that might be necessary to grow their business.

In addition, a good number of co-working spaces also make available incubation and accelerator programs. Via these programs, members can get free expert advice, secure funding, find a mentor, find partners, and so on.

2. Flexibility

Co-working spaces barely have the rigidity that comes with traditional offices. A good number of modern co-working spaces offer 24-hour access, and this gives members the flexibility to work whenever they want. If you need to pull an all-nighter to beat a deadline, with a co-working space you may not have to bother about the office closing in the evening.

According to reports, around 50% of coworkers access the co-working space around the clock. Only 30% of members prefer to stick to the normal working hours. Note that the flexibility of co-working spaces is not just about time. Members also tend to have the flexibility of deciding how they want to work.

If you are looking to collaborate with others, there are open areas with shared tables where you can collaborate and share ideas. If you prefer to work in a quiet place where you can concentrate, then there are closed-off spaces where you can work with little or no distractions.

A good number of co-working spaces also have relaxation areas and lounges. For example, if you want to take private calls, co-working spaces also got you covered. This kind of flexibility can be hard to locate in a traditional office setting.

3. Potential For Innovation, Learning, and Collaboration

In a well-established co-working space, you can find yourself working next to a designer one day, a coder the next day, and a writer on day 3. This diversity provides members with access to people they would normally not meet in a traditional office setting.

Collaborating with this diverse group of people will most times lead to increased opportunities for innovation and interactions. For instance, an individual from an entirely different field can help you look at your ideas and challenges from a different angle, and this can help you come up with new, creative solutions that you might normally not have thought of otherwise.

4. Sense of Community

Co-working spaces tend to foster a close-knit community than a workplace. Note that every coworking space has its own unique culture, vibe, and atmosphere of friendliness. Indeed, these connections with others tend to be one of the most vital reasons why people join co-working spaces.

A good number of co-working spaces see themselves as both workspace providers and hospitality companies. The managers of these facilities tend to know each member of the community by name and profession. Although the sense of community is present, interaction and socialization between members are not forced.

Any member is free to decide how and when to collaborate with others, and can as well decide to be left alone. Just the feeling that other members are available to help with ideas is enough for co-working space members to develop a strong sense of identity with the community.

Also, since members barely belong to the same organization, interactions between members are easier and more relaxed, and this fosters a sense of community.

5. Design and Wellbeing

You have to understand that a good number of traditional offices are typically utilitarian. These spaces are designed for functionality rather than aesthetics. Meanwhile, co-working spaces tend to be designed to offer a unique ambiance and promote a feeling of wellbeing.

In a co-working space, enormous attention is paid to the interior design, with a lot of natural light, break-out spaces, lounges, and cafes, and even more advanced perks like Gyms. Note that all of this is meant solely to enhance members’ energy and inspire them.

Therefore, people who work out of co-working spaces tend to be more engaged and generally more productive in their work

6. Strong Personal and Professional Relationships

Becoming a member of a co-working space is indeed a wonderful way to build friendships with people outside of your workplace. According to experts, it is a good way of building professional relationships and boosting the profile of your business.

You can more or less think of co-working as attending a networking event every day. Co-working spaces tend to offer members the platform and opportunity to build strong personal and professional relationships on a level that would have been unachievable had they been working from home or a traditional office setting.

Also, just like it was noted above, co-working spaces organize events for members to interact and connect, giving members even more opportunities to build their professional network even further.

7. Little or No Distractions

Agreeably, it is not uncommon to get distracted when you are working. You might decide to quickly check out the funny clip a friend just shared on Twitter, and before you realize it, you have spent an hour scrolling your Twitter timeline.

Although the same might occur even if you are working out of a co-working space, however, you are less likely to fall so massively to distractions when co-working. Have it in mind that you are paying good money to use that space, and you want to make sure that your time there is spent on necessary stuff rather than chit-chatting.

8. Satisfaction in Work

According to experts, people who work out of co-working spaces tend to find more meaning in their work as against people who work in traditional offices. This can be credited both to the type of work they do as well as how they do it.

Most often, the people you are likely to find in a co-working space are freelancers and entrepreneurs. Freelancers choose the projects they intend to work on, and thus are more likely to select projects that interest them, and are therefore more likely to find the work satisfactory.

This also applies to entrepreneurs who are passionate about their businesses. They are also more likely to feel satisfied with what they do. Coworkers will find meaning in their work because they can easily be themselves at work.

Meanwhile, in a traditional office setting, people tend to have two personalities. Their real and their office personality! Owing to numerous factors like competition with workmates, office politics, bad bosses, and many more, people in a traditional office setting tend to create an office persona to handle most of these issues.

However, in a co-working space, everyone is working for themselves, so there are no issues like competition and office politics. In co-working spaces, if you feel like you need a break, you can just walk into the break room and play a game of pool before going back to your desk.

There won’t be any need to pretend to be working even when you have nothing to do just because your boss is around. If your work for the day is done, no one can stop you from leaving early instead of waiting for 5 o’clock. Note that these factors contribute to coworkers finding more satisfaction in their work.