[niemenmaa]

Before pandemic I started working remotely and soon noticed that, like OP, working alone doesn't suit me.

I solved this by joining a co-working hub that offers offices to remote workers / entrepreneurs. My employer pays for the hub membership.

I drive to our offices around once a month, but rest of the time I sit in a room with an accountant and gym owner. They are fun to chat and go to lunch with but they don't interrupt me with work related things.

As a bonus I get to meet and hang with professionals in many different areas and I find that really satisfying.

If I change company I work for, I just get the new employer to pay for the office. If I need to move, I prefer cities that have this kind of co-working place.

This is quite doable, here in Finland at least and while it has some downsides, it has worked for me!

[alecbz]

Not knocking what works for anyone else, but for me this really doesn't at all address the "working remotely" issue.

Working around a bunch of strangers is better than being alone in my apartment all day, a bit better still if we're in similar industries, but the real thing I want is being physically present with the actual people on my team that I'm working with.

Right now I'm working from my company's local office, but my team is located elsewhere/working remote. It's definitely better than a coworking space IMO, but after one week of flying out to HQ and working with my actual team in person, even just 1-2 of them for most of the week, I realized working from my local office doesn't even come close to how much I enjoy actually being physically present with the people I work with.

[niemenmaa]

This is definitely one of the bigger downsides of remote work, so I fully agree.

[pawelwentpawel]

This is an excellent example of the difference between "working from home" and "working remotely". Those two terms unfortunately are used interchangeably as synonyms.

[PragmaticPulp]

It’s because 99% or more of remote workers are working from home.

Coworkers spaces are basically micro remote offices for 1. Much of the remote discourse has been about avoiding offices and commutes altogether, not replacing it with a different micro office that you commute to alone.

It’s reasonable to assume that remote and work from home are the same thing unless someone explicitly says they’re working in a satellite coworking soave.

[pawelwentpawel]

Touching on your points:

1. "99% of remote workers are working from home" - we're in the middle of a massive pandemic so it's hard not to.

2. "(...) avoiding offices and commutes altogether, not replacing it with a different micro office (...)" - if you happen to cowork, there is a massive difference between being able to choose the location of your office (or whatever we'd like to call the place where the work happens) vs being dictated one by your employer. You're in charge of your physical location and you have the freedom to optimise your commute and context that works best for you. Cutting your commute by 1 hour a day and assuming that you do 260, 8 hour working days a year yields over a month of work freed up (~32 full-time working days).

3. "It’s reasonable to assume that remote and work from home are the same thing" - I think that this way of thinking is not only grossly inaccurate but will also hurt remote work trends in the future. WFH and remote work are two sets that sometimes intersect but are not equal. They're not the same thing. To clarify that, a couple examples:

- Most of my family are artists (painters) working from home. They're not working remotely because there is no remote entity that they are answering to. They have their art studios where they live. It's WFH, not remote.

- Let's say I have a client, employer or any entity that I answer to that's in a different location. I have a contractual agreement which states I don't need to appear in their place of work and everything happens over the internet. I choose to work from an office that I have rented. I am working remotely but not working from where I sleep. It's remote without the WFH.

- I got stuck at home working remotely for my employer because we're in a nasty lockdown or I simply chose to do so. In this case, those sets intersect. It's WFH and Remote.

[terminalcommand]

Yeah this is true. When I say people I'm working from home, they look with pitty. When I say, I'm working remotely, people's impression change.

I don't know why this is like this, but it is true for me.

[jader201]

> When I say people I'm working from home, they look with pitty.

That sounds odd. Pity is usually expressed when you're in an unfortunate position you had/have no control over. Most people (should) understand that most people work from home not out of force, but out of choice.

[Izkata]

When work and home become one, it gives the impression you're always on call / aren't able to separate the two. Could be an issue the other people have, so they imagine you being the same.

I do remember when enforced work-from-home started almost two years ago, a lot of people didn't have a ready-made space like a home office and complained about exactly that problem.

[terminalcommand]

Well, in the beginning this was the case. But as time passed, some people returned to the office, our office didn't. Working from home has its benefits, but it also isolates you, makes it harder to seperate personal/professional life.

[xwolfi]

But then what s the point ? We re forced to work from home to avoid contaminating our colleagues but it s fine to crowd a coworking space ?

Sounds very inefficient to me but I guess people like us are a minority.

Gladly in my country we have 0 case (Hong Kong) so we work at the office now, thank God.

[iso1631]

Good luck with that approach, I hope you enjoy your office.

Yet the [zero covid] approach has largely cut off Hong Kong from both China and the world - a severe blow for a place that built its success on global connections. Even more than recent political changes, the authorities' refusal to adapt to living with the virus is eroding Hong Kong's viability as an international city, according to almost two dozen diplomats, chambers of commerce, recruiters, pilots and other expatriates. ....

In a survey released this month, the British Chamber of Commerce found that 70 percent of respondents hoping to add staff in Hong Kong had encountered difficulties, with many citing quarantine restrictions. ....

Jan Willem Moller, chairman of the Dutch Chamber of Commerce, said that about a quarter of Dutch businesspeople have left this year, and that the departures would "increase significantly" if the quarantine rules stay in place ....

At least 240 Cathay pilots have quit since May, according to employees who reviewed internal numbers. The carrier is reeling, with staff morale at "rock bottom" after hefty pay cuts last year and more departures imminent, several pilots said ....

Resentment spilled over last month when more than 120 students were ordered to a government quarantine camp known as Penny's Bay after they were deemed to be contacts of a pilot who was among three who tested positive on return from Germany

https://www.yahoo.com/news/hong-kong-clinging-zero-covid-132...

[cma]

> Yet the [zero covid] approach has largely cut off Hong Kong from both China and the world

Through most of things China itself had a zero covid approach too.

[techcode]

The point of co-working space combo with "WFH/Remote" is that you potentially get benefits of both WFH/Remote and Office.

Being in co-working space/office gives you some social interaction, less chance teenage neighbor is blasting latest trance tunes on really loud speakers on one side and another neighbor is tearing down/renovating his apartment with loads of jack-hammer action, perhaps you just don't have enough desk space at home, maybe it's easier to switch between work and personal life by having some (short) commute ...etc. Some of those might be all the time - and some might be every now and then.

Meanwhile not being in same "central" office with colleagues give you more independence/autonomy. Beyond having less interruptions (e.g: it's easier to avoid/ignore a chat/email than a physical shoulder poke), some people prefer (or actually perform better) when interactions are less "real time" and more async, or perhaps they just concentrate better at 4am or 10pm ...etc.

And in general idea is that co-working offices don't need to be as big/crowded nor as far as big company offices.

Though I'm not sure how much last part applies to places like Hong Kong (many people, relatively short distances)

[OJFord]

I assume the suggestion is that the co-working space will be used when the rules/conditions allow; which is no different to the prospective employer's own office OP presumes to look for anyway.

[agumonkey]

Maybe 'working anywhere' would be simpler than 'remote' to the average person.

[Arubis]

+10000%. Coworking is, for me, remote working done right: you get to separate your "work family" from your employer/clientele, which means you can change one without changing the other at your discretion.

[cmrdporcupine]

I am glad to hear I'm not the only person with this idea. I just walked away from 10 years at Google in part because the last almost-2 years of remote just killed my productivity and motivation completely and I need to reset and find something smaller with a higher velocity and creativity and without the 45 minute (one way) commute I had to Google. I didn't like remote, but commuting in also sucked. And even when I went into the office for hybrid, 90% of my coworkers were never there to collaborate with anyways.

So my thought is that in my job hunt even if I find something that's remote (likely given where I live) that I will rent myself an office space nearby where there's other humans, better Internet, and no distractions from wife, kids, dog, garden, skis, bed, living room, TV, etc.

[F30]

How many (online) meetings do you (and the others) typically have? How do you manage the resulting conflicts around quietness, background noise, or even confidentiality of meeting contents?

While I like the idea of shared co-working, the reality is that my current job works best in a room on my own. And it doesn't even involve more than 10 % meetings plus some ad-hoc calls with coworkers.

[niemenmaa]

My work consists of ~30% of meetings and ~5% of phone calls. We have a rule with my "roommates" that short calls (< 30 min) can be made without leaving the room. Luckily for me these are mostly internal (and non-confidential) ones.

If it is a customer meeting, then I go to a phone booth that has a standing desk, and for longer ones I book a meeting room where the setup is little bit better.

In previous co-working space was this big hall and distance between tables was something like 5 to 10 meters (15-30 ft.) and almost everyone made their calls on their desks, even though phone booths and meeting rooms were available.

One's mileage may of course greatly vary :)

[fy20]

I'm also in a co-working space. Mine has two main rooms, one is a free for all and the other is a silent area. I'm in the silent area, and if I need to take make a call I take my laptop to the other side so as not to disturb anyone. I get very irritated by office noises, and this works pretty well for me.

[cprayingmantis]

If you or anyone else has the time I'd love to talk about what in your opinion makes a great co-working space. Looking into setting up one in the rural region I'm in.

[niemenmaa]

IMHO greatness comes from the community.

A mental checklist when looking for one (not necessarily in this order)

  Need:
  - good internet
  - own desk
  - place to securely store laptop after hours
  - fridge
  -  phone booth / meeting room

  Plus:
  - coffee, tee etc.
  - tableware, washing machine, someone to operate it
  - 24/7 access
  - printing

[Demcox]

What a great solution - will keep this in mind!