The Pros and Cons of Coworking Spaces: The Four Tens Experience

If you’ve been on the Internet lately, you’ve probably heard of this new term called “coworking” that popped up overnight. Suddenly, people are taking “open floor plan offices” to a whole new extreme. Now you can share couches and tables with people from outside​ of your company! 

But coworking is far more than a passing fad. According to Upsuite, a matchmaking service for people and businesses that are looking for coworking office spaces, as of 2017, there were 15,500 coworking spaces worldwide. WeWork may be the biggest name in coworking, but they still only have 1% of all coworking spaces under their umbrella. (source)​ ​

We decided to see what all the fuss is about and try out a coworking space for a day. We ventured out of our respective home offices to visit Industrious, a nationwide coworking company with a presence in downtown Tampa. Here's what we found: 

1. It can be a bit of an adjustment to working in an open space with other people if you’re used to working alone from home.
2. Having “coffeeshop” background ambient noise is great for creative tasks, but not so great for phone calls. Good thing for phone call booths!
3. The amenities are killer—who doesn’t love free snacks, coffee, and loose-leaf teas? It’s weird to have a commute to an office space if you have office space at home. And you remember the time suck that is sitting in afternoon traffic driving home.
4. Being surrounded by walls of windows and a view of the skyline will probably/certainly beat the view in your home office. The Wi-Fi has to be amazing, and for us, we didn’t have any problems at all. I can only imagine the kind of collective meltdown that would occur in a coworking space if the internet went out.
5. You will be compelled to buy lunch. It’s impossible to resist the siren call of access to restaurants and delis galore downtown when you normally work out of your house in the deep heart of the suburbs. 
6. If you’re looking to network, the events hosted in coworking spaces are a great opportunity, but from what we saw, the rest of the time most individuals or groups keep to themselves. This may also be dependent upon how the space itself is set up, whether it's really open or segmented more by private offices.
7. It should be illegal to hum or whistle in a shared coworking space. 

Although it can be pricey to have a monthly membership (depending on the space), most coworking locations offer a reasonable daily fee to use their spaces with access to their amenities. We enjoyed our experiment getting out of the house but may try out a few other spaces first before deciding if it makes sense for us. 

If you’re looking for an excuse to get out of the house or need a little human interaction with other freelancers, do a quick Google search for coworking spaces in your area. You may be surprised at the options available!