UDOTs love co-working. But there are (sometimes written, sometimes not) rules, and anyone who’s co-worked longer than a few days knows the boners you can make:
• Conducting excruciatingly loud conference calls in common areas while wearing your headphones, having no idea how loud you’re talking. Get a conference room, people!
• Eating someone else’s lunch out of the fridge (the one she was thinking about all morning), or the snacks that aren’t on the “shared” shelf.
• Not putting your coffee cup in the dishwasher and washing your plates and silverware.
Those are the basics.
Then there’s the one that could be the least obvious and most critical:
Not taking advantage of the best resource co-working has to offer. Which is of course, the people.
You’re doing yourself a massive disservice—and wasting money—if, every once in a while, you don’t pick your head up and say “Hi,” introduce yourself to someone, start a conversation.
The worst mistake you can make in co-working is not making the most of your community. Co-working means having great resources sitting within inches of you. If that’s not the case, you’re in the wrong space. It’s definitely true of Second Shift in Chicago, where I spend a few days a week.
Some co-working spaces have great amenities like cold-filtered coffee and craft beer on tap. But you pay the price in your monthly bill. I like the ones that have really smart, accessible, friendly, and helpful people on tap. You can’t put a value on that.
I have nothing against WeWork and other “chain” co-working spaces. Just remember that one of the biggest potential benefits of co-working isn’t the stuff that comes out of the taps. It’s the humans who walk in the door.
