Inspired by Judy Jenner’s post about her first three months of co-working, here’s an update on my own co-working situation.
Brief background: about this time last year, I came to a few realizations.
- Next year (now this year), my daughter would be starting middle school and would be getting more independent.
- My husband, who used to work at home, now works at an office.
- A lot of my longtime friends who used to work part time or be home full time are now working full time or are busy with other things. Of course I still see them, but they aren’t around as much during the day.
- After 10 years of working at home, I needed a change. What used to seem peaceful and blessedly quiet started to seem isolating and lonely. I realized that I had to take action when I saw a really cute outfit in a store (second hand, naturally!) and then thought “Where would I ever wear that? It’s not like I see anyone during the work day.”
And well, I’m a doer. So I decided to do something about this situation and find myself an office outside the house. Fortuitously, Boulder has no shortage of co-working spaces for all flavors of freelancers, and after touring four or five of them, I found “the one,” in a beautifully renovated old building right in downtown Boulder. I’ve been happily working there/here for the past nine months, so here’s a quick FAQ about the experience.
Q: How do you like co-working in general?
A: Three words: I love it. It gets me out of the house, it gives me some semblance of a boundary between home and work life, it forces me to get my work done in a defined period of time, it gives me an excuse to wear something other than workout clothes and it gives me interesting people to talk to. When I get up in the morning, I feel like I have some place I need to be, which is a feeling I enjoy. I ride my bike to my office, which is also nice: it’s a 20 minute, not too strenuous ride, just enough to get the blood pumping in the morning and the afternoon. When I get home in the afternoon, I feel like something happened during the day; I feel like I have something to talk about, other than “I sat in the office/guest room, then I washed some dishes, then I sat in the office/guest room some more.” Admittedly, a lot of these factors probably have more to do with me than with the objective realities of freelancing, but there you go. Those are my reasons!
Q: How much does the office cost and what do you get?
A: I pay $350 a month for my own desk, and I keep all of my work stuff there. I also get use of the building’s conference rooms, unlimited coffee and tea (plus they wash the cups…that alone is worth $350 a month) and I can eat in the building’s social club for an extra fee.
Q: Who else works there, and did you know them ahead of time?
A: My building has private office suites and a group work room. I have a desk in the group work room; there aren’t any other translators here, and I didn’t know anyone else in the building ahead of time. I really like both of those aspects: it’s interesting to work around people who do totally different jobs than I do (IT, PR, law, corporate writing, etc.) and it’s just enough social interaction. I have something in common with a lot of the people in the building, but I can also get work done without feeling like I have to socialize.
Q: Are there any negatives?
A: So far, not really. I feel that the improvement in my enjoyment of the work day and my increased productivity are well worth $4,000 a year. In fact, this year is on track to be my highest-earning year ever, despite the fact that I took a month off this summer. So I think that my perception that I’m getting more done in the same amount of time is probably accurate.
Q: Any advice for other people considering co-working?
A: Make sure you find the right spot, because all offices are not created equal. The first place I went to look at was everything I *didn’t* want in a co-working space: in a basement with no natural light, empty vodka bottles in the kitchen (seriously) and more of a tech-startup vibe than a word nerd vibe. The office where I ended up has the feel of a really, really nice library with a great garden and a lot of nice art. So the physical space has a lot to do with it; at least more than I thought at the outset.
Other co-workers, any thoughts??
“empty vodka bottles in the kitchen (seriously)”
That is so selfish!
They should leave a little bit for coworkers!
This would be considered bad manners even in Russia!
Steve, your comment made my day :))
Definitely! And this is in Colorado!!
“I feel that the improvement in my enjoyment of the work day and my increased productivity are well worth $4,000 a year”
I love this, I think translators in particular need to be very attuned to their time value, especially because we have more flexible schedules. Really great to hear about co-working. I haven’t tried them out, but this makes me want to 😀
Anthony
Thanks Anthony! That is a great point about time value: giving up the office would be an easy way to save $4,000 a year. But if you only think about frugality (even as a very frugal person!), your business is going to stagnate.
I really liked your text, thanks for that.
I enjoyed reading your post, Corinne. But while I agree that it can be nice to get out of the house and see other people during the day, it seems to me that certain jobs are more appropriate for co-working than others. I would love the idea if I were a graphic designer or some other creative type. But as a translator sharing an open office space, I would be concerned about getting the peace and quiet that I need to concentrate and get my work done. Isn’t this an issue? It’s the main reason that I quit my last job and started working from home.
Thanks Viviane; I think it depends on the actual office and on your personal noise tolerance. My tolerance for ambient noise is pretty high (too many years of working at home when my daughter was really little!)and my office is pretty quiet, so it works. If someone is on a long phone call, I just put on my headphones with instrumental music and it’s fine. But I agree that if you’re in an office where people are constantly making noise and walking around, it would be annoying.
Thank you for sharing your experience, this is very interesting.
Definitely food for thought! My life-partner is also my work partner and because we both do work at home and almost always on the same projects, we’re together virtually 24/24, 7/7. Sometimes this can definitely become overly intense.
Though we live in a large apartment in a favourable quiet location at the bottom of a steep hill – on which it is technically forbidden to drive (an ordinance that is not respected by all) – our two-floor space is laid out in such a manner that every room leads sequentially into every other room. The impact of this is that we can always hear whatever else the other one is doing – even their breathing if it happens to be agitated! – and it also makes it too easy to disturb the other partner’s concentration for no good reason if we’re not each totally engaged in our own individual tasks.
Perhaps an office-sanctuary would be a very worthwhile asset – we could always skype each other if we were feeling lonely :).
Thanks for your comment; I love the expression “office-sanctuary.” Sometimes I call my office my “girl cave,” which is kind of similar! My husband and I shared an office in our house for 2 years, and I agree that even when you get along very well, it’s a challenge. Plus it’s just nice to have something to talk about at the end of the day. Now that we work in separate offices, we do talk or e-mail several times a day so I think that Skype could work for you!
Thank you Corinne for sharing your experience (I also enjoyed reading Judy Jenner’s post).
One things that comes to mind is data security. When you say that you leave all your work stuff at the office, what about confidentiality? I mean, we often have to sign NDAs and in my working field (finance) data is especially sensitive (not to mention laws that have to be complied with). I’d like to hear your thoughts on this 🙂
Thanks Tatjana! A few thoughts: I don’t usually work on highly confidential documents, so it’s not a huge issue for me; I work on a laptop, so I do bring it back and forth, and I always lock the screen when I’m not at my desk; the building where I work is pretty secure; you have to check in with the receptionist to get into the building, and my office is on the very top floor, where no one would go unless they were coming into that office. But I agree that if you work on very confidential documents, working in a public office presents some issues to think about.
I knew I wanted to cowork, the minute I decided to freelance. “A basement with no natural light, empty vodka bottles in the kitchen” sounds like a complete nightmare though! I co-sign on the importance of shopping around to find a place/places that suits you
Thanks Astrid; yes, definitely true. Going into it, I thought that co-working offices would all be fairly similar but they are not. Best to look around, or think about starting a small co-working office if there isn’t one near you.
Thanks for this post Corinne! I love coworking (I share a space with an illustrator and a graphic designer): I love that I have established regular working hours, and my turnover has also increased in spite of some more time off too 🙂
Thanks Lucile, that’s interesting to know about your income! More money with less work is always a good thing!
Coworking is something I have always wanted to try. Unfortunately it’s still a bit too expensive for me. But whenever I can, I go for it. It’s seems to bring together the advantages of working independently and sharing an office.
Thanks Benjamin; I agree, very good way to put it!
Thanks Corinne! Exactly the questions I had. I am inspired to take the leap, but unfortunately there are no co-working offices in PC and it does not seem Worth a half hour commute one way. Next step is to arrange one myself, so keep inspiring me.
Go co-working! My office even has cool stuff like free yoga, free happy hours, and free mentoring sessions with high-profile executives. I couldn’t be happier with my choice, and I am paying less than $100 a month — crazy (I go once a week).
Dear Corinne,
Thank you for sharing you co-working experience with us. I heard this is getting really big in my country, Brazil. Apparently, there are whole buildings being bought by companies in São Paulo, just so they can rent offices for people to share (and profit, of course). Here in Sweden, where I live now, this seems to be going on for a while. With the harsh winters that we have here we definitely need a reason to leave the house. A cozy place, where we can have some company while working and some fikas [a couple of coffee + something sweet] in between tasks, sounds like the perfect incentive for me.
@Judy: Free yoga? Wow, you really found the right spot, haven’t you? I am seriously thinking about moving to your country now… 🙂