Is It Time to Return to Cowork?

Cowork brands have a fabulous opportunity to step into the breach and help businesses bridge the gap between their needs for collaborative team systems, and the emerging demands of their employee communities, for less commuting, more autonomy, more time with family, etc. Are these struggling brands able to seize that opportunity?

Coworking was all the rage of the early 21st century, much as cryptocurrency has been these past few years: both obscenely overfunded and wildly ambitious ventures promising global networks of innovative and disruptive systems, at once creatively unique in their approach and culturally homogeneous in their provision of reliable and recognizable results. WeWork , 雷格斯 , Spaces, and others wanted to be the Starbucks for startup workspace. The idea seemed solid enough: cater to a generation that wanted to be more inventive, less conventional; more connected, less chained down; more flexible, less structured. Provide spaces that meet a workforce of individuals wherever they might find themselves, at the place and time of day when inspiration and energy strikes.

Then COVID f***ed it all up.

Well, that's the story many of these coworking ventures (several now dissolved) are sticking with. In a culture still enamored with the enticing notion of fast funnels to funding and fortune, it doesn't do to delve too deeply into the more mundane whys and wherefores of a conceptual failure, especially when millions and millions of someone else's dollars have been squandered. As it stands, it is convenient and, at least in part, somewhat true to claim that the pandemic had a decidedly detrimental effect on the fulfillment of the cowork space vision, as it existed just a few years ago.

A vision obscured by unexpected reality is not necessarily a vision erased, though. Sometimes, the very thing that clouds a picture presents an unforeseen opportunity to reevaluate, repurpose, reposition, and revitalize. In the case of cowork spaces, I think we are now entering a phase that offers a new and more responsive narrative: Instead of creating a solution and fabricating a problem to feed into said solution, we are now presented with the chance to respond to an actual dynamic shift in workforce habits and aspirations. Employees across the world were "forced" to work from home for numerous months, and in many cases, several years. In the process of this restructuring, many enterprises and even more workers discovered they preferred the new model, unformed though it was. Today, many businesses - driven by habit as much as anything esle - are trying to force the proverbial genie back into the bottle, with varying degrees of failure.

Let's acknowledge that fulltime WFH only works for specific types of roles, despite what many employees might wish. Onsite 40+ hours per week is equally inefficient, unconstructive, and even unhealthy. This makes it exceedingly challenging for Facilities Management to calculate office space investments, both short and longer term.

Hybrid work schedules will become a core dimension of enterprise infrastructures. Companies large and small cannot justify the need to have all their workers travel to a central site, 5 days a week. In fact, purchasing dedicated office space for a full-time workforce is an economically unsound strategy for so many of today's businesses. Hybrid work strategies maximize employee time, increase productivity, and reduce facilities costs, among a host of other benefits. Whether businesses are able to make the cultural adjustment in a timely fashion remains to be seen.

This time, the coworking model should not be tailored to an unreliable swath of disorganized startups who believe their unformed brain burp will be the next multibillion dollar enterprise, but rather to the solid and decidedly less sexy businesses that recognize they need to adapt and evolve their relationships with employees, while still meeting quarterly objectives in productivity, collaboration, and output. Instead of cowork spaces that offer goat massage classes, candy buffets, and foreign movie screening nights, we have a much more robust and sustainable opportunity to offer up spaces where enterprise workers can meet regularly and retain the connection that brands need to maintain and grow their identity and value proposition. We need more conference rooms and less bean bags. More video conferencing facilities and less venture capital meetings. Let's entertain the idea of coworking spaces as a response to an existing challenge, and help evolve new business models that are no less disruptive, but manageably so. Let's acknowledge the opportunity to enhance work/life balance, transform a fad for vast corporate spaces into a trend toward more affordable and accessible residential spaces, and respond to a desire to be more connected to both our work colleagues and our home lives with healthy solutions, founded on a clear-eyed recognition of the challenges and opportunities we face today.

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About?Nicholas de Wolff

With a strong background in emerging digital content channels, platforms, and technologies, Nicholas has led and advised numerous business incubator programs, government agencies, and startups, and has been responsible for the launch and development of over 60 businesses worldwide.

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