As more people work in jobs that don’t require a commute, more and more people are discovering how isolating it can be working at home---and they don’t like it. While employees who work in traditional offices often dream about how wonderful working from home can be, the reality is that not everyone has the emotional ability to handle such isolation.
According to a U.S. Chamber of Commerce study, more than 20 million people have jobs that allow them to work from their homes. While some people work for companies in a telecommuting agreement, others are independent contractors and business owners who find it more cost effective to operate their small business from home.
There is a growing trend that is a unique solution to this problem of isolation. It’s called co-working and more and more people who have traditional work-at-home jobs are opting for it---especially young people without children. The workers meet through blogs and social sites and rent a house or office together to socialize, share and work. People are will to pay a small fee to use a rented space to work from simply for the social aspect.
According to Wikipedia, co-working is “an emerging trend for a new pattern for working. Typically work-at-home professionals or independent contractors or people who travel frequently end up working in relative isolation. Co-working is the social gathering of a group of people, who are still working independently, but who share values and who are interested in the synergy that can happen from working with talented people in the same space.”And if you want to co-work, you can find places to do it all over the country, but most prevalently on the West Coast.
Co-working has been around for more than a year, but is becoming more and more popular. There’s even a co-working blog for people who want to search for co-working places and people. On the blog is a long list of spaces where people can go to work---even though they could get the same work done from their home.Co-working places have sprung up all over the world. And the idea of co-working has created new businesses---those geared toward providing spaces for the work-at-homers to work from, out of their homes. To work in these co-worker spaces, you have to pay a fee and the fees vary from site to site, state to state.
One co-worker site offered a variety of plans, including those who “moonlight” and require hours after their traditional job. For example, unlimited time in one space for a worktable was $200 per month and for a cubicle it was $350, but prices begin on per month hourly basis at $70. The fees can include high speed internet access, secure Wi-Fi connectivity, and print/copy/fax services. Pay a higher fee and a executive assistant is included in the cost.The irony of paying to work outside of the home is not lost on these co-working advocates, but they’ve decided the social interaction with like-minded professionals is worth the cost.
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