Recently Rent.com put out a list of The Top 10 Zoom Towns to Move to in 2022.” We got excited because Centennial, CO was one of the top 10 and then they mentioned The Village Workspace as one of the coworking spaces that makes Centennial an easy place to work remotely from. I love that we are not just calling meetings “Zoom calls”, but our towns are now “Zoom Towns”. This new hybrid workspace continues to evolve as employees exercise their voice for greater flexibility in where and how they work.
You can pop in a coworking space and they will likely have a room (or several) set up with a nice backdrop or office setting paired with high speed internet to take that important Zoom call from. Let’s all agree, we shouldn’t be sitting on our beds during an important business video calls (especially if you haven’t made the bed or folded your laundry). Most of us are over the cuteness of being on calls that are constantly interrupted by kids running by in underwear or dogs barking incessantly, Today’s hybrid workspace is about more than just location. Many want to choose who they work with and how often.
In this post-COVID climate, we’ve seen the power shift to the employees who want choice. They want the choice to work from home and skip the 45-min commute. They want the choice to make that drive to go in for a team meeting … occasionally. They may even want the choice to work from a local coworking space to get away from the monotony of sitting at the kitchen table and having to juggle kids’ homework, piles of laundry and finishing that proposal.[Read: Mom Guilt for more on this challenge many women still face.] Many say they want to work with their traditional coworkers on some projects and perhaps at times they do their best creative work alone or amongst strangers in a coffee-shop environment.
Coworking spaces offer more than just Zoom rooms and private offices. These hybrid workspaces can offer conference rooms for teams to gather once a week or a few times a month, regular educational and social events to meet others, as well as space to just work among other remote workers who are in the same boat. Today’s digital nomads or as one article called them, LOMADS (local nomads working from home), are looking for connection, private space and wifi, as well as the flexibility to come in when they need to…or want to. Is this the new hybrid workspace that many are seeking?
Even the federal government has agreed that there are more choices than just office or home. In August 2021, they committed to this new hybrid workspace concept when they signed an agreement allowing government workers to now work from home, office or a local coworking space.
What does this mean for the larger office spaces that used to be home to all who were employed full-time there? Will we see offices transformed into apartment complexes or will they become smaller spaces that are more flexible allowing some people to work in parts of the building and others to dial in from home or “Zoom rooms”?
We believe the hybrid or flex model will continue to evolve and that employees will play a big role in what the future of work will become!
What are your thoughts? Where do you do your best work?
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