Working from home or in a coworking space

Any form of regular, voluntary, paid work done for a company outside its premises is called telework. Employees use ICT to perform tasks within their area of responsibility from outside the company. Thus, there are several places where teleworking is possible. We distinguish between working from home and coworking. The following article compares these two possible telecommuting locations by the advantages they offer.

The advantages of working from home

Greater flexibility

You’ll have your own schedule and be responsible for organizing your tasks, as long as you follow the rules set by the company. This will allow you to balance your professional and personal life. This is a very important factor in employee happiness.

Working from home is good for the environment

With more and more people looking to live a sustainable life, working from home is perfect for an environmentally friendly lifestyle. In fact, working from home can help the environment. In the Stanford study, researchers were able to show that work-from-home groups produced significantly lower CO2 emissions than office-based work groups.

Disadvantages of working from home

Lack of community and teamwork

The main reason against a 100% telecommuting model is that isolation kills collaboration. When employees think together in the office, ideas emerge faster and in greater numbers. So working from home 5 days a week is not a good idea for creative, smart employees.

Supervision is neglected

Working alone is sometimes difficult. In this role, it is necessary for employees to evaluate their work performance. Self-regulation can be difficult and the job is based on employee discretion.

Employees sometimes become lazy and take several breaks, indeed, without supervision, their breaks can be quite long and work less.

The advantages of coworking

Interaction with people in your field

Even if you know your job inside out, you will often ask questions or seek advice from colleagues: in documents if you are a lawyer, in visuals if you are a graphic designer, in languages if you are a translator. If you’re a translator, you need connections, if you’re a journalist… working in an open space will allow you to interact with people in your industry. Someone who may have more experience, other knowledge or expertise… To grow, there is nothing more important than communication and sharing. If you are overwhelmed, why not outsource some tasks to colleagues in your industry and vice versa?

Internal mobility

Traditional offices can sometimes be a hindrance to many entrepreneurs. Joy at work is now part of the desire for mobility. In addition to renting offices, coworking spaces also offer access to common rooms. When the office gets dark, you can move without leaving your employees and colleagues. You can quickly handle emergencies in a matter of minutes.

The disadvantages of coworking

Coworking costs money

Depending on your location, renting an office in a coworking space can quickly become expensive. For example, coworking space rentals in Grenoble or Annecy range from 200 to 450 euros per month. You should also know that these rates are for one person! So if you are a young start-up with two, three, four or more employees, you may need to negotiate a group rate to work in a coworking space without paying around €1,000 per month in rent. For this cost, depending on your situation, it will be more advantageous to rent your own professional office or work from home.

Reduced efficiency

Remote workers who join coworking spaces to increase their productivity sometimes face the opposite effect. As a result, these spaces tend to be noisy, cramped, and unattractive places to work. While these spaces are great for generating ideas and making connections, they are rarely conducive to productive work.

Finally, note that there are many pros and cons to telecommuting and working remotely in a coworking space. Nevertheless, keep in mind that working in a coworking space can offset the disadvantages of telecommuting while offering plenty of benefits, but you have to take the time to choose that coworking space carefully. It’s the better of the two options, and the one you should probably go with.