ALX Community
After months of working at home, Selam Eyassu needed to get out of her house, and just be around other people.
“I need that social interaction,” Eyassu said. “I don’t necessarily have to talk to someone all day, but I miss the normal.”
As a relationship manager for Hingham Institution for Savings, she had been working with an office mate and going to in-person meetings before the pandemic hit. In March, she started working from home — alone.
Eyassu always had the option to work from home, but she knew that wasn’t for her and she preferred going to the office. After months of working from home this year, she became a member of co-working facility ALX Community.
Eyassu is one of the millions of people nationwide who are now working from home. of a growing number of people who The United States could currently be considered to have a work-from-home economy, according to the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR). As of June, 42 percent of U.S. workers were working from home full-time, according to . Last year, only 3.2 percent of employees worked from home full-time, according to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.
However, working from home does not work for many people. Some people have internet connectivity issues, get distracted easily or don't have a dedicated space for a desk or office.
The pandemic has sparked increased interest in coworking spaces and it has simultaneously pushed coworking spaces make adjustments to their business model.
Coworking spaces are different from traditional offices in that they are made up of people from different businesses who share a space. These facilities offer a wide variety of options, from unassigned seating in common areas to assigned desks, private offices, and suites. In addition, they often provide conference rooms and other amenities for members.
Local Coworking
ALX Community, a dog-friendly coworking community on Alexandria's waterfront, has continued to grow during the pandemic.
Not many people were leaving their homes to work during the beginning stages of the pandemic, but recently local coworking spaces have seen an increase in interest from individuals looking for a place to get work done.
“In Old Town area and surrounding areas, our homes aren’t set up for that,” said ALX Community COO Kelly Grant said. “We have townhomes and small areas, and kids and people all running around, and our internet not running very fast.”
Operations at ALX Community have changed since the pandemic began. Prior to the pandemic, ALX Community's open-concept space was popular, but the coworking space has been seeing much more interest in space's offices.
“Because coworking was traditionally in an open-air space, not everyone felt comfortable,” Grant said. “We opened up offices to allow them to work safely in those offices.”
CARR Workplaces in Alexandria
Gelda Maule, the general manager of Alexandria CARR Workplaces, has also seen more individuals looking to get out of their homes.
“The walls are kinda closing in a bit,” Maule said, referring to how some new customers are feeling about working at home.
CARR’s layout is less of an open-space concept, offering more individual, private offices. Maule has seen this make people feel safer because they don’t have to share a space with anyone.
Coworking offices have offered a workspace solution to people who don’t have sufficient space in their homes. Maule stated, as an example, that CARR currently has a teacher using one of their offices to present to her students with a more professional atmosphere in the background, away from the distractions of home.
Before the pandemic, professionals using co-working spaces were mostly start-ups, small and medium companies and freelancers, according to a Coworker study.
Professionals aren’t the only ones using co-working spaces now. Grant has seen an influx in college students seeking a place to study, but those aren’t the only students using the space.
“We also have learning pods, where parents have decided their homes aren’t going to be set up well to homeschool their children,” Grant said.
Coworking Space Looking Back to Core Values
And while these coworking spaces in Alexandria have seen more business recently, one business has decided to rethink their offerings.
The Garden branded itself as coworking, although not in the traditional sense of office workers. Instead, The Garden offers work benches and tools for metalworking, woodworking, welding and even 3D printing.
When the pandemic first hit, they closed down to evaluate how they could safely operate and serve the community.
“This moment has kind of made us reevaluate what The Garden is and what The Garden can be, both from a business perspective and a community perspective,” COO Allen Brooks said.
The Garden is owned and operated by Building Momentum, a training organization aimed at educating people about new technology. Instead of focusing on using their space for coworking, they want to hold more training events for community members.
Reducing the coworking offerings will open their workshop for training opportunities. There will still be offerings for people who need to use the space to complete projects, they are looking to increase training opportunities.
“I think that one thing COVID has though us is that the idea of self-reliance means something new now,” Allen said. They wanted to be able to help the community learn how to make their own furniture or work on their own electrical wiring in their homes.
Looking to the Future
There is some doubt that the traditional 9-to-5 workplace will go back to normal, even after the pandemic has passed. Twitter announced back in May that it would allow employees to work from home permanently, and other tech companies have followed.
The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta's Survey of Business Uncertainty released in May indicated that business are planning on having employees work from home more. The survey indicated that the number of days workers will spend working from home could triple, going from 5.5 percent to almost 17 percent.
“Going to a traditional office, I’m not sure that’s going to be the way of the world anymore,” Grant said. She has seen brokers trying to find people to use their space, and ALX Community is looking to possibly expand to another property.
With more people working remotely even after the pandemic, more individuals and business could be using coworking spaces.
