Depending on whether you’re an introvert or an extrovert, you may have loved or hated the stay-at-home orders. Working from home definitely has positives and negatives for both sides, though. If you’ve been managing both work and children? 2020 was a tough year. On the other hand, if you enjoy rolling out of bed and shuffling to the kitchen table to work in your pajamas? Then the WFH protocol wasn’t that bad! Some of us experienced productivity boosts while others fell behind due to outside pressures affecting out day-to-day.

But what will things look like once the masks are off and out regular, “normal” office life beckons?

Coworking Spaces are Increasingly In Demand

Some companies will begin to calculate what they’ll save by allowing workers to work where they like—and some already have. Without the overhead of a full-time office, businesses can shift funds elsewhere. Better financials are great, but where does that leave us—the human employees that, at least some of the time, crave human interaction?

The Best Spaces Will Offer the Best of Both Worlds

The answer to this question may just be a revamped version of what we started doing this past year. Maintaining an office space—maybe a smaller one meant for less people—where employees can tune in and meet when they need to, while still having the option to work from home when they don’t.

Coworking spaces were popular before the pandemic for freelancers, startups and other small businesses who may not have had the resources for a full office space. Now, even large companies are looking into coworking space options for their teams. Giving their employees the option to work from home and come in when they need, while allowing their top level employees to work as a unit in the office offers a unique environment.

Benefits of Coworking Spaces

A benefit for smaller businesses, especially those that may have struggled during the height of the pandemic, is that renting a few desks, a conference room, or a portion of a floor of a coworking building is a lot cheaper than paying utilities on their permanent office space.

Not having to pay utility bills, rent, maintenance, internet and other costs enables these businesses to allocate those funds to other areas they need it can help fuel small business’s growth post-pandemic.

The benefits to coworking spaces are not just financial. No matter how many Zooms, Google Hangouts, etc. we have all been a part of this past year, there will always be meetings that need to happen face-to-face. HR conversations, strategy meetings and other sensitive topics are best handled in person. Coworking spaces give employees the ability to come in for these conversations and maintain the sense of community working in-person with each other gives us.

Coworking spaces are also great for networking with other small businesses and sharing ideas. This creates an even greater sense of camaraderie in the office space, as well as adds creativity to your team.

Future of Coworking Spaces

If remote work has taught us anything, it’s that people enjoy flexibility and freedom in how they work—be this your location, the hours you work, or anything else that makes your work experience more conducive to your life. Coworking spaces are not new, but are definitely surging in popularity. They offer the flexibility that people have adjusted to and learned to thrive in this year.

Because we don’t necessarily have to commute to our jobs anymore, secondary cities like Nashville and Sacramento will grow as people leave their larger cities. Higher quality of life combined, lower cost of living, and the job flexibility you need to be your most productive? Who could argue with that? After business owners have seen the way their teams adapted this last year, a more flexible work environment only seems like the natural progression of the regular workplace.