2022 Is The Year of the Hybrid Workforce
25N Coworking Waco virtual office! (Launching February 2022)
Dear members (and future members) of 25N, coworking aficionados, flexibility fanatics, and everyone fleeing the drudgery of your corporate commute —
2022 is our year. This is the year of the small business owner, the remote worker, the stay-at-home-parent with the lucrative side-hustle, the “I need to get my work-life balance in line” c-suite exec. The people have spoken — companies have listened — and we want something new:
70 percent of workers want flexible remote work options to continue.
Over 65 percent crave more in-person time with their teams.
42 percent of employees say they lack essential office supplies at home.
(Stats from Forbes magazine)
It’s clear that people want to choose where they work, but they also crave connection and business resources. This is where coworking meets two specific needs that aren’t going away soon: space to focus, and opportunities to connect.
I’m eager to share three thoughts to usher in what I think will be a landmark year for coworking, and (yes, I’m unabashedly biased) for 25N Coworking in particular. The team and I have taken some time to mull over what we’d love to start, stop, and continue for the New Year.
Here’s what we came up with:
1. Start (25N ❤ Waco, TX) —
Meagan (25N’s COO) and I have been set on expanding our region in Texas for some time, but we weren’t going to jump into any old partnership. We wanted it to be right. Right partners, right suburb, right time, right launch team. I’m delighted to say that all of the pieces are now in place and, in less than a month, we’ll start building a community in Waco. 25N Waco will launch under the strategic leadership of a veteran 25N Community Manager, and serve the leaders, entrepreneurs, ideators, and corporate hubs of this thriving city. The flexible design of 25N spaces has allowed us to optimize all of our existing locations for the hybrid workforce, and I’m particularly excited to launch a Waco coworking space with these amenities featured from the very start. It has the most individual private offices of any of our locations to date (solo remote workers, rejoice!), Zoom rooms for easy hybrid meeting setup, and more flexibility than ever before. Join us for the first look at the end of this month. I’d love to see you there.
2. Stop (this one’s for the industry at large) —
In a recent interview, I was asked what professional cultural shift needs to take place to support the new world of work. My response was simple: stop making work your “everything”. (And stop expecting your employees to make work their “everything”.)
Hear me out: it’s no secret that humans thrive when we feel invested in our work. This is a key driver of wellbeing and happiness! What I would like to contend with is the idea that work should be the only place where you get this sense of fulfillment.
The workforce must recognize that work is an important part of a person’s life but that, in the end, it is only one part. If work becomes your “everything”, you’ll find yourself crushed by disappointment on the hard days.
Instead, push back on the “work-is-everything-for-my-fulfillment” mindset by focusing on a well-rounded life collage— a concept I’ve been inspired by for much of my adult life. This metaphor builds from the idea that our lives are massive collages composed of multicolored pieces; family, community, work/vocation, education/growth/learning, spirituality, philanthropy/advocacy/activism.
Take time (soon!) to right-size your collage. What pieces of your life collage must be in place in order for you to feel fulfilled? Maybe you’re in a fast-growth period and work needs to take a bigger spot for the next few months. Perhaps your kids are about to start college and you want to be uber-present for the homecoming games, the prom invites, the senior photos — minimizing work for a time.
Regardless of what pieces will help your unique collage thrive, taking strategic time to map this out will help you make balanced, value-based decisions. So. Stop skipping lunch breaks. Stop missing your friend group’s happy hour on Thursday nights. Stop arriving late to your daughter’s basketball games. Work is important, but it’s not everything.
(As a bonus, exciting trend for 2022: more and more companies are building teams with balance in mind and creating people-first policies around this commitment.)
3. Continue (keep being who we’ve committed to be) —
25N Team Values
I’m working hard to help Team 25N continue to live out our values in every corner of our work. Back in October, we asked our whole team to join us for a half-day-long “re-launch” party to share and celebrate what our team values most. With our own team disbursing throughout the country (not to mention growing by half), we knew we had to double down on what makes us strong: our team culture.
We got to celebrate the best of who we are and commit to being in the future. Our team is people-first, growth-minded, resilient, purposeful, and balanced. Without any one of these, the vision falls off balance. With all, we’re unstoppable.
So — members and friends — what do you want to start, stop, and continue this year? With the rise of the hybrid, hyper-flexible work movement, 2022 could be a year where we all get to do more of what we care about. (And with this forecasted to be 25N’s fastest-growing year yet, we’re excited to bring even more new friends along.)
For community,
Mara Hauser