While millions of
According to the American Psychiatric Association, nearly two-thirds of people working from home reported feeling isolated, and over two-thirds reported having trouble getting from work at the end of the day. While returning to the workplace is one option, Gadi Royz, CEO of workspace marketplace anywell, believes there's a better way.
"The idea of working from home for the rest of our careers is just not sustainable," says Royz. "Fortunately, there are a bunch of ways to work remotely, and there is a third space."
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The "third space" workplace can be a hotel rooftop, restaurant or favorite cafe that employees already frequent in their daily lives. Anywell creates a marketplace in which employers partner with these third spaces to provide accommodations like Wifi access, meal plans and guaranteed seating. Workers just have to pick an available venue they wish to work from that day on the anywell app.
Arguably, with COVID variants still evolving and new public health threats like monkeypox and polio entering the picture, a "third space" may not be optimal for those taking more precautions. However, Royz imagines that alternative workspaces will be the future as the workplace becomes more decentralized and globalized. EBN spoke with Royz to gain more insight into the next evolution of how we work.
How has the workplace changed in the last few years?
While COVID accelerated change, the workplace is always undergoing tectonic change. Work began in caves. Then 200 years ago, the industrial revolution changed the way people work and everyone found themselves in factories. One hundred years later, the office has become the main place to work, particularly for knowledge workers. We've seen constant change within the office as well, moving from cubicles to coworking spaces that emerged 30 years ago. Even before the pandemic, we've seen a movement towards a decentralized model. Now we are in the midst of another evolution, where offices are becoming more like headquarters.
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What challenges come with taking work home?
The fact that people are not collaborating and the fact that people are stuck at home has a cost. The Great Resignation is such a widespread phenomenon in part because people are less socially connected to the organizations and feel less obliged to take part in the bigger story at their company. That's the hidden cost of decentralized work.
But 'decentralized' does not have to mean divided. By creating a marketplace just for hosts of third spaces, employers and workers, organizations can encourage employees to work together outside the office and even have group meetings on their non-office days.
How do third spaces like hotels and coffee shops benefit from this model, too?
You can sit in a coffee shop, drinking espresso for four hours, and it will only cost you maybe $4. That sounds like a good bargain for the employee. However, this affordable luxury costs more than $4 for the host. These hosts, who survived two years of the pandemic, are now witnessing a rise of knowledge workers squatting for quite some time. This is not sustainable, since this limits the turnover of customers.
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We have seen places across the country ask tech workers not to work between certain hours so they can make space for more guests. Hosts are even offering designated spaces or rooms for workers, as long as they can pay a minimum expense per hour in exchange for all the drip coffee and water they want. The market is trying to stabilize itself — both the hosts and employees are looking for more structured, predictable and cost-efficient ways to work remotely. For example, in our marketplace, hosts can offer food, drinks and their space for a predetermined cost per hour, paid by the employer.
Why is it beneficial for employers and employees to have a workspace outside of their homes and offices?
First, because of the reduction of operational costs related to the office. If you have a hybrid model, on average, the office can reduce the workspace-related costs by 40%, which means that there is theoretically more space in their budgets. Second, organizations are realizing that supplying you with equipment like a nice keyboard or monitor doesn't solve your remote work needs. There is an organic need for people to work outside of their homes, and engage, collaborate and collide with one another.
At the end of the day, home is designed for us to leave and return to it — not work. People need to get out of their homes. That's why we are optimizing distances between employees but still offering places where they can sit together and work.
