Four myths about Coworking

The Coworking assumes itself more and more as a trend of modern economy and an excellent alternative to the conventional office. 

According to Deskmag, Portugal is placed among the ten first places of the world ranking in number of coworking spaces, revealing the success of this work model close to Portuguese professionals and companies. However still exist some myths associated to Coworking,

of which we highlight four:

There is a higher number of coworking spaces users that are startups and freelancers, but currently any company, regardless its dimension, uses this type of space, provided that it fits their activity.

On the other hand, in parallel with peripheral areas, there are today coworking spaces in the center of big cities, some of them in office or business centers, with good accessibilities and private parking.

Despite coworking was born in the heart of creative industries and freelancers communities, there are increasingly more coworking spaces which offer not only the workspace but also the virtual office service and secretariat support.

They are not better nor worse than coworking "traditional" spaces. They are different and oriented towards a more corporate segment, which values a more formal image without being relaxed, the reception support to visitors and clients, state of the art technology and comfort in the lounge areas and meeting rooms.

A little bit everywhere, there are many examples of big companies such as Accenture, Zurich, Plantronics, Citrix, Steelcase, CapitalOne, among others that make use of coworking spaces, being able to rationalize work teams and save millions of Euros in real estate costs.

Although coworking spaces being shared there is a deep respect for the privacy of each coworker. In addition for them to be prepared acoustically, there are several spaces with small rooms for telephone calls and videoconference which offer higher privacy conditions whenever needed. Moreover, one of coworking spaces golden rule is the respect for other users.

This is another of the great myths more frequent. Who wants to collaborate will. Who doesn't, will not. Even in networking events and workshops, common in this type of spaces and considered an added value for the members, those who consider not to have a profile for such or is not interested in sharing experiences or knowledge, is not discriminated by their  peers.

Above all, the new coworking spaces value the comfort of the users and the possibility for them to work wherever they are: at home, at the coffee shop or at the coworking. And, here, the virtual office service came to facilitate even more this mobility, as coworkers are always in contact with the secretariat through multiple collaborative platforms.

Little by little, these myths are being dispelled, with professionals and companies of all dimensions to take increasingly more rational and efficient decisions in their businesses management.

Deskmag 2013 Census numbers demonstrate that this reality not only in Portugal but at a worldwide level, where within one year the number of coworking spaces has doubled. In the beginning of the year, more than 110 thousand people worked in one of the almost 2.500 coworking spaces spread throughout 81 countries. Coworking really came to stay and is today an inevitable alternative.

Carlos Gonçalves

Avila Coworking

www.avilacoworking.com