Have you heard about shared workspaces?

Shared work spaces are a concept used in Hamburg Germany back in the 1950s. Surprising, isn’t it? Well, not so much. There is a consensus amongst anthropologists about the fact that socialization processes in hot countries are better. Middle Eastern cultures tend to develop relationships more easily than in cold countries. In 1950s Germany, it was not easy to motivate your employees to connect with other workers. A revolutionary man said: “Wait, what if we break all the walls in the office?” This man was ahead of his time and evolution took over fifty years to close the gap. So, what are the benefits of shared work spaces?

Cost savings

More and more studies are clearly showing that working in a shared workspace is significantly cheaper. Offices that are comprised of many rooms are very much time consuming in design, planning, sitting arrangement, material sourcing, decoration, coffee machine and printers, not to mention cleaning and maintenance.

Working in shared workspace is clearly more cost efficient. The owners make sure that all needs are met. Flexible contract, modular spaces, according to the demand.

Better relationships

A shared work space enables better communication between employees. Good teamwork shows results. Open spaces create community. A good analogy to this would be neighborly relations in a building. A building where neighbors live with open doors. You can come in, take a glass of milk when needed and just sit down for a cup of coffee in the evening.

Compared to a building where no one has any idea who lives on the floor above or below it. Consider a pipe leaking in such a place. Which of the two buildings would solve the problem faster? The answer is clear.

Awareness of what is happening with the employee

We came across an interesting case in an article from a British business newspaper About positive intervention from management that has helped employees significantly.

The case speaks of a Pakistani worker working in a company in a collaborative work space. For days, the employee would talk on the phone more than usual and in Pakistani. No one understood the content, but everyone felt the employee was in distress. Co-workers reported the case to management. After several days, they summoned the employee and simply asked him: What happened? The employee burst into tears and told them that he and his wife had decided to break up after almost twenty years of marriage. He did not feel comfortable asking his management for leave due to being a loyal and dedicated employee. The company sent him on a mission in the United States. Thanks to the exposure in a shared work space, the managers noticed the distress of this good worker and as a result he was granted “vacation” in another country. He continued to work and was paid a salary, but was given the opportunity to get out of the situation.