The Future Work: Community Coworking Model

The work-life balance of many modern workers has become extremely fractured. People are less satisfied in their work lives than ever. Many people, even in high-paying jobs, are having a hard time feeling fulfilled while at work. This is due to a range of factors. Wages are stagnating in certain industries, benefits are harder to come by than ever, and commutes reduce work satisfaction dramatically.

The Importance of Community

However, one more subtle factor that many businesses are missing out on today is community. This is something that businesses are entirely aware of. The 2000’s saw an influx of businesses attempting to build “work families” and strong communities. Yet looking back many of these attempts fell entirely flat. The team-building exercises and forced events of this time just weren’t engaging for employees. This is why a community coworking model is important.

Today though this effort has been honed and made more meaningful. The future of work communities has come in fostering positive employee connections. This means not just letting employees connect in work events and productivity-based spaces, but genuine fun social events. The Tavern community coworking model, for instance, is a modern method of having employees connect.

The model includes employers renting hotels and bars for communal lunches, happy hours, and other social events. The intent of these events is very simply for a community to be developed for the sake of that community itself. Typically, this requires a subscription from employees to attend these events regularly, but this is a worthwhile tradeoff. The cost is quite a literal monthly subscription. The benefit is that employees attend events promoted and hosted by community leaders with their peers. Events are made to be social and fun, not watered-down excuses to promote the business and its mission.

Conclusion

This makes a massive difference in employees’ perceptions of their work and general professional lives. The majority of U.S adults today are lonely. This is due in no large part to the isolating workplaces of today. These modern work models help people foster genuine work connections, something taken for granted decades ago. It’s not a change that fixes all the modern problems of workspaces today. Instead, it is a step in the right direction. Employees deserve to be happy, but even from the employer’s point of view, happy employees are better employees. This is why businesses are investing in their employees as people, not exclusively as products.