I've had a few jobs at smaller companies in WeWork's, and I'd advise staying away from them in particular. The whole thing feels like some nightmarish version of what a committee thinks millennials want in an office. It's expensive, loud, and a creepy environment for the most part. The offices we had were nice though; at least the glass partitions made it feel a bit more open, compared to other coworking spaces where an interior room had no windows at all. I have no idea if that's all of them though.
Ask HN: Do you enjoy working in a coworking space?
61–70 of 162 posts
Re: Ask HN: Do you enjoy working in a coworking space?
#62Nah, I just work from home, you don't need a lot of space. The smallest room we have (about 2m x 3m), which has a desk (couple of monitors, desktop, etc), a view, a door, a small rack (nothing particularly noisy), couple of cupboards, printer, and a pull down single bed for when mother-in-law stays the night. So much more productive than if I go into an office and try to work, or try to work from a cafe or train. Abo…
>> This is simply a failure on behalf of the person working to just say no. Nobody treats me as if I'm "at home".
Yeah. Worked from home for ~2 years for a company and not once did I ever feel like I was being treated differently.
Re: Ask HN: Do you enjoy working in a coworking space?
#63I recently (11 months ago) moved to a large city - Buenos Aires - from an almost-a-town city (100K people).
We moved from a 140 square meter house where I had a large room all for my own as office (also doubled as gym) to a 35 sq meter apartment.
So, my wife gave me an ultimatum: there's no way in hell you're going to keep working at home.
I had to search for a coworking space, I found one really close (10 minutes by bike), that also happens to be the cheapest in the city by far and started working there.
Even thought I still maintain that there's no match to working from home, I find that working there has the incredible benefit of allowing for networking (Even thought the teams in this particular coworking space are rather closed), plus sets very defined boundaries between work and personal life.
As a personal benefit, I'm quite the hermit, where I'd go several days without leaving the house except for grocery shopping, so being forced to actually go out is a plus.
Re: Ask HN: Do you enjoy working in a coworking space?
#64Nah, I just work from home, you don't need a lot of space. The smallest room we have (about 2m x 3m), which has a desk (couple of monitors, desktop, etc), a view, a door, a small rack (nothing particularly noisy), couple of cupboards, printer, and a pull down single bed for when mother-in-law stays the night. So much more productive than if I go into an office and try to work, or try to work from a cafe or train. Abo…
>> This is simply a failure on behalf of the person working to just say no. Nobody treats me as if I'm "at home". Yeah. Worked from home for ~2 years for a company and not once did I ever feel like I was being treated differently.
I believe the grandparent comment was in regards to people in your home treating you as if you were "at home". This means your kids/spouse would ask you to do something for them that they wouldn't do if you were "at work". I can agree with him though, that if you're working from home, you need to be able to tell people that no, you can't unload the dishwasher, you're "at work".
Re: Ask HN: Do you enjoy working in a coworking space?
#65I prefer working at a cafe. Coworkings remind me about awful jobs at office spaces. At a cafe, I feel more freedom that I can change my working place every day. If you pay for coworking, you have to go there every day. What is the difference between an office job and a freelance job? With freelancing, you can work from anywhere. Startups and corporates move in coworking because it might be cheaper to rent.
Some coworking spaces do have better atmosphere than a cafe. But those can be deep in the city, expensive, high traffic, which would also feel like an office job.
I will find a cafe with my atmosphere.
BTW, I met my wife at a cafe. She was freelancing there as I was!
Re: Ask HN: Do you enjoy working in a coworking space?
#66I've been a solo dev for about 7 years now, these are my findings: # Working from home ('free') Working from home is great for about 6 months, then isolation kicks in and the divide between work and relaxing disappears. Given my situation (single, no kids) I quickly become very lonely. A separate in house office helps for a separation between work and not-work, as long as you have the discipline not to use your offic…
I think your specific situation has a HUGE impact on how much you'll enjoy working from home.
I'm married, have 4 kids, and I never feel lonely at home. I totally get how a single guy / gal with no kids would, though.
I never found any issues with dividing work / life, though. I have a dedicated office, and I believe it's a huge part of it.
Re: Ask HN: Do you enjoy working in a coworking space?
#67Hell no
Re: Ask HN: Do you enjoy working in a coworking space?
#68I loathe offices, coworking spaces, and cafes. I need a clean environment free of distractions to focus. It took a few years to adjust to this initially but I'll never go back. I don't feel the compulsion to have meaningless social interactions with strangers - maybe I am unique in that way.
Re: Ask HN: Do you enjoy working in a coworking space?
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
>> This is simply a failure on behalf of the person working to just say no. Nobody treats me as if I'm "at home". Yeah. Worked from home for ~2 years for a company and not once did I ever feel like I was being treated differently.
I believe the grandparent comment was in regards to people in your home treating you as if you were "at home". This means your kids/spouse would ask you to do something for them that they wouldn't do if you were "at work". I can agree with him though, that if you're working from home, you need to be able to tell people that no, you can't unload the dishwasher, you're "at work".
One of my parents did this for years, so going purely from experience it's a matter of good communication: When I'm in my study, I am at work. Do not go in there or disturb me unless the house is on fire. Problem solved.
I don't really get why a lot of people feel this is an insurmountable obstacle. Surely being able to outline your boundaries and people keeping to them is a core component of a healthy relationship?
Re: Ask HN: Do you enjoy working in a coworking space?
#70Earlier quoted context omitted.
>> This is simply a failure on behalf of the person working to just say no. Nobody treats me as if I'm "at home". Yeah. Worked from home for ~2 years for a company and not once did I ever feel like I was being treated differently.
I believe the grandparent comment was in regards to people in your home treating you as if you were "at home". This means your kids/spouse would ask you to do something for them that they wouldn't do if you were "at work". I can agree with him though, that if you're working from home, you need to be able to tell people that no, you can't unload the dishwasher, you're "at work".
This is my problem with the idea of working from home at the moment. While we do have a spare room I could use, I think the possiblity for distraction would be too significant.
Once my youngest is in school in a couple of years it might become more of an option, but I'd still have the same issue during the holidays.
Basically I need a larger house to really make it work though. A friend of mine has an office-shed in his garden, which would be perfect if we had the space but sadly ours is too small for that.