CO-WORKING OFFICE

In the 1980’s someone at Ernst & Young, an international accounting firm, made a quick calculation on office usage on the back of a paper napkin. The results were astonishing, occupancy rates of the workspace are very inefficient. Think of it: of the 365 days of the year, at least 100 days a year the office space is not used. To make matters worse, of the 24 hours around 16 hours a day the office remains empty. In addition to that, not all the employees sit the whole day at his or her desk. Some staffs are rarely at their desk. Ernst & Young, good accountants as they are, saw a unique business opportunity: instead of giving every employee their desk they provided spaces for their staff to work when they are in the office, it could be at a desk (that they would share with others), it could be a room that they could reserve in advance. They called it: “hoteling”. WeWork is taking this thought a step further, companies rent a minimum space from WeWork and instead of building meeting rooms, break-out spaces, these type of auxiliary spaces are used when needed and shared with other companies. WeWork was not the first to call for this Workplace Sharing but they are arguably the most successful in setting up this concept. WeWork provides space for any company, from a one-man operation to a full-blown organization and giving them space to work. Also, they will give these companies access to exquisitely designed meeting rooms, cafeteria’s, phone booths, mother rooms, conference rooms, and game rooms, not owned but shared with others. It’s Hoteling 2.0.