Remote Work Style Guide: Choose Your Workspace Style

workspace

Just seven months ago, remote work was a small part of the market. It was a perk that some companies offered. Specific industries encouraged it, while others did not tolerate it at all. However once COVID19 was declared a pandemic, 88% of organizations worldwide made it mandatory or encouraged their employees to work from home.

Moving forward, remote work isn’t going away anytime soon, leading employees and employers alike to evaluate which style of work is best for them. As restrictions ease slightly, there are more options than just the typical work from home. At Optimum Coworking, we have everything from virtual offices, to private offices, to full coworking spaces. Let’s explore the pros and cons of each so you can choose your style of work.

The Classic: Work From Home

Pros: Working from home is praised for eliminating commuting, providing independence, and increasing productivity. It provides flexibility and work-life balance. It’s proven to reduce work absences and for businesses, it can cut major costs.

If this is working for you as an individual or as a business, virtual offices can help ensure you don’t miss anything that a ‘regular office’ would have. Virtual offices provide infrastructure to any size company. They provide you with a business address, mail service, and phone number. You can browse the different resources available for virtual offices here so you can continue on working from home.

Cons: Not everyone’s living situation is the best for this style of work. Working from home can make it hard to know when to shut off and with the pandemic, too much time at home is making everyone a little stir crazy. If you live with a partner or children, distractions could be increased at home. This is when a private office or coworking space could come into play. Let’s compare the two.

The Hybrid: Renting a Private Office

Pros: Private offices provide everything you need that may be a pain to set up at home. They’re decorated, stimulating, lockable spaces with desks and office chairs. High-speed reliable wifi, business printing, and access to coffee, tea, and kitchen. The major pros are having a designated workspace out of the house and you can space yourself away from others and ensure safety. You can also use the office in a more relaxed manner than a corporate office. You are able to come as you please and choose a membership that works for you.

Cons: While private offices relieve a lot of the stress that comes with working from home, they do not have the buzz of a busy work environment that some employees really enjoy and feed off of for a good day’s work. This is when a coworking space could be beneficial.

The Buzz: Join a Coworking Space

Pros: Being a part of a community! With COVID19, co-working spaces are having to adapt to safety and cleaning protocols. However, they are still able to provide a sense of community and belonging as well as more interactions and inspiration from peers than a private office could. You can choose to come in just one day or every day of the week. Coworking spaces also have flexible memberships and they offer a professional environment with all the work essentials (quality wifi, power, desks, chairs, printing, meeting space…etc).

Cons: Now especially, it’s important to ask the question: do you feel safe working around others? And do your employees? Pandemic aside, the cons of coworking can also just be working around strangers and whether this hinders your work or enhances it.

It’s time to reflect on how we work best and where that may be. After considering this question and reckoning with the new age of work– give Optimum Coworking a call and discuss which option would work best for you.