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Together, we can work solo
Freelancers share ideas at a co-working location
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Renita Jablonski: Working from home may seem like the pinnacle of professional convenience, but it can also be a double-edged sword for creative types who crave stimulation and social contact. Alex Goldmark looked into one solution for the work-at-home blues: something called co-working.
ALEX GOLDMARK: Political consultant Joanne Wright used to work from home, but it got lonely.
JOANNE WRIGHT: Great apartment, great cat, but I kinda lost my mind after trying to work there for six months.
So after trying out noisy coffee shops she found Nutopia, a co-working space in lower Manhattan. Co-working is an emerging practice of sharing a workspace, but not the work. This large, sunny office with over 40 desks is designed to encourage interaction. There aren't any cubicles, and hardly any walls.
WRIGHT: I like to take in the fact that he's over there organizing Broadway auditions that has nothing to do with what I'm working on. She's putting together ad campaigns. People are just from all different walks of life.
Well, not exactly all walks of life. It's mostly tech workers and creative types, and a few nonprofitters, too.
At 2 p.m. on a Friday, this Midtown apartment is calm, but crowded. Fifteen or so laptop-lugging young professionals are sitting thigh to thigh on couches, futons and even the floor. It's a bi-weekly work-together day called Jelly -- which doesn't stand for anything by the way.
Two years ago, founder Amit Gupta used to work from home with his roommates but they still craved company.
AMIT GUPTA: So we just started at some point inviting over like one or two people to work on the kitchen table with us, just 'cause we thought it be fun. And they told their friends and other people told each other and . . .
And now it's a public event, replicated in 18 cities.
Jeremy Nims is a regular attendee. He says for most people here, the lure is social.
JEREMY MIMS: They sit around doing work, sometimes, but mostly it's a good place to just interact and find out what other people are working on.
GOLDMARK: So you're not more productive when you're here, are you?
MIMS: I'm not more productive, but I'm a lot happier.
And he's better connected. Which is crucial, according to Sara Horowitz, head of the 70,000-member Freelancers' Union.
SARA HOROWITZ: It's not just about socializing, it's not just about hanging out. That is exactly the way that people find out where work is. So if they're not getting out of their homes they will be truly unsuccessful.
Trying to balance productivity with my freelancer's urge to socialize, I'm Alex Goldmark for Marketplace.
My wife and I also work from home although we have an office, in San Rafael, we go to, mostly me. Still, after years of working from home and a small office we both felt we are missing few things, such as more interaction with others like us, the need to brainstorm with others every now and then, and the need to leave the house after long day/s of working from home (sometimes the walls are just closing on you). That's why we came with this idea, apparently joining a trend and opened www.bzhive.com in Marin County.
After talking to others, mostly ones that we see working at coffee-shops, we realized it makes perfect sense.
Coworking spaces are opening in cities large & small. They provide the creative & collabrative atmosphere needed by many workers. Freelancers, those that travel, usually work from a home office or those that might just be looking to cut office expenses. These spaces allow workers in a variety of fields the affordability & flexibility they want. Chattanooga's downtown business district has a new coworking space available. For more information check out twitter.com/conciergelevel, wiki.coworking.info/CoworkingChattanooga or info@theconciergelevel.com
My girlfriend and i had a chance to get a house about three or four years ago; they would have had us in a house that day. She and I decided before we left their office not to let them get us into a "bad loan" and left the office after over five hours without a loan (our own doing). We were responsible and others who were not have made their own beds.
