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Together instead of alone:
Instead of sitting alone in the home office, more and more freelancers and, increasingly, employees are using the advantages of coworking spaces
Photo: Pekic / Getty Images
Coworking spaces are booming.
Even before the start of the corona pandemic, the number of this decentralized office space, in which employees can flexibly rent to work, has quadrupled in Germany within 24 months to 1268, according to an analysis by the Federal Association of Coworking Spaces Germany (BCVS) from the spring 2020 emerges.
At the beginning of 2018 there were just over 300.
The jump into the home office suddenly forced by the virus has now once again contributed its part to the growth of coworking spaces.
As
Tobias Kremkau
, one of the co-founders of the German Coworking Foundation (GCF) estimates, two to three times as many coworking spaces have opened in Germany since the beginning of the pandemic.
Thus, the coronavirus has obviously only affected the industry for a short time. At the beginning of the pandemic in March last year, it seemed difficult to imagine that several people would ever again work at different desks in an open-plan office. But with the help of hygiene concepts and support from the federal and state governments, the providers got through the crisis better than expected. Ultimately, the industry is even one of the winners of the pandemic, as both employers and employees have come to appreciate the advantages of decentralized work.
After all, employees do not have to commute to work, for example, and work-life balance works better.
But since not everyone can work from home without any problems - there is often a lack of the simplest things such as space, technical equipment or just quiet or even exchange - so-called coworking has developed into a real alternative to the home office.
Inspiration and network included
Translated, coworking means "working together".
Self-employed, freelancers and, increasingly, more and more employees from a wide variety of industries come together under one roof to work together.
You not only use the existing technology such as the Internet and printer, but also benefit, in contrast to the home office, from the feeling of community and the exchange with other coworkers in the communal areas - inspiration and network included.
In addition, there is great flexibility in terms of time, as the desks can not only be rented at short notice, but also rented again.
In addition, coworking is also location-independent for users, as the space is available in almost every large city and increasingly in more and more rural areas.
Working with a view of the beach or the mountains becomes possible for everyone.
Companies save money on expensive office space
For companies, the concept is first and foremost financially worthwhile, as they save the money for expensive office space.
After all, the cost of a workspace in a coworking space is on average half the cost of a desk in the office.
According to the search platform "Coworking Guide", a job in Berlin costs an average of around 220 euros per month.
A coworker pays the most on average in Cologne and Munich.
In addition, there is also flexibility here: For projects with a limited duration, for example, the premises can only be rented for a certain period of time.
If a company needs more space in the short term due to its growth, it can initially fall back on the spaces in the coworking space.
With the opportunity to work in the coworking space, employers also ensure that their employees are satisfied and also attract talents who were previously not considered employees due to their geographical distance.
In terms of privacy, too, keyword company secrets, the coworking spaces meanwhile have something to offer: More and more providers are also making private offices, conference rooms or even entire floors available that can be rented at short notice.
Betahaus: The first German coworking space has filed for bankruptcy
This new work concept originated in Berlin in the mid-1990s, and in 2005 the term "coworking" was used for the first time at the opening of Brad Neuberg's "Spiral Muse" in San Francisco.
In Germany, the first coworking space, the Betahaus, was opened in Berlin in 2009.
Initially, the concept was particularly widespread in German metropolitan regions, but today flexible workplaces are becoming more and more popular in rural regions as well.
Many people are drawn out of the city; it is too loud, too narrow, too expensive for them.
Digital work, which was often only tried out during the Corona crisis, now actually enables you to change location to the countryside.
According to a survey by the opinion research institute Civey from the summer of 2020 for the "Zeit" foundation, one in three city dwellers would like to move to the countryside.
This is exactly the trend in coworking spaces.
While there are more and more offers in the country, the big, urban companies are under pressure.
The Betahaus in Berlin, for example, had to file for bankruptcy in September 2021.
The strategy of providers such as Betahaus, Regus, WeWork or Mindspace to concentrate not only on the individual employees but on the company became a problem in the pandemic.
The business of renting entire offices or event spaces collapsed completely.
According to GCF co-founder Kremkau, smaller providers as well as those in small and medium-sized cities also suffered from the Corona crisis, but to a lesser extent than the coworking spaces in the big cities.
This means that there will continue to be more coworking spaces in the future - but they are mainly spreading in the villages.
And that also helps with the second current trend topic, sustainability: Those who no longer have to commute from the country to the city by car ultimately save CO2.