Combating the water-cooler effect
Pressure. Constraints. These are just some of the adjectives that might come to mind with the idea of cubicle work. There are benefits of course, but at what cost? Then there are the home-entrepreneurs and independent workers who, albeit free of those obstacles, still miss out on the benefits of office culture.
Psychology Today | We tend to assume that employee engagement is about the work—that so long as we give talented people challenging taste and the tools to excel, they will be happy. But that formula is incomplete. Our mind responds to the signals in our environment. And the less comfortable we are while doing out work, the fewer cognitive resources we have available.
We need to be in the right space to do our best work. Coworking creates a venue that attempts to fix the shortcomings of independent entrepreneurship. The water-cooler effect occurs when employees at a workplace gather around the office cooler to chat, which is synonymous with gathering and connecting people in a certain environment.
With furnished and a variety of spaces, coworking creates a community where its members can collaborate with each other, as well as have a space to meet with clients. While this is standard for most spaces, it’s important to fit the location’s atmosphere. Often prospective members purchase a day pass to test the waters and see whether they like the work environment or not. As the number of members grow, the more refined the culture becomes.
Those who find themselves in a coworking space have constant access to networking that is self-directed, collaborative, flexible and voluntary in nature. You’re still working independently but you’ve added mutual trust and shared common core values into your routine.
If you’re interested in the synergy that can happen from working with people who value working in the same place alongside each other, it would be worth your while to look into getting a day pass from your local coworking space.