co working space

Co-Working Bust: What Happened To WeWork- Failure or Changing Times

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The rise and fall of WeWork is one of the more popular stories in the business world in recent years.

There have been numerous documentaries and television shows depicting the rise and fall.

If you’re interested in some of the long form work that discusses the spectacular rise and fall of WeWork, then you can check out:

But let’s do a brief review of some of the issues that plagued the co-working space.

Co-Working Spaces: Not Just WeWork

The idea of a Co-Working space is normally identified with WeWork, but there are many other co-working spaces around the world. There are co-working spaces such as The Farm, Bond Collective, Ventura Pad, The Yard, and Regus.

It became a trend in the years leading up to the global pandemic shutdown. Many small co-working spaces opened up in cities such as NYC and LA in order to capitalize on the success and popularity of WeWork.

It also became trendy for start ups, especially those that wanted to have a real brick and mortar location, to look towards co-working spaces.

The open office space also became very popular, with many companies advertising that their offices were located in co-working spaces as a draw to applicants.

When you review some of the job postings from year ago, you will see that many firms highlighted if the office was located in a co-working space. It became somewhat of a desirable location.

Selling A Dream: Beer, Games, and Fun                

One of the reasons why WeWork was such a news story was because of the atmosphere. It was described as a place for lonely millennials to work without feeling the soul crushing boredom of a regular office.

Photos of WeWork spaces would show fun open design spaces. Some WeWork spaces would have beer and other things you would not expect in a professional office space.

While things like free beer didn’t last, it was something that got a ton of media and press attention.

Leading up to the boom in co-working spaces, many people found that attracting new grads and younger workers to the office was difficult. Especially with white collar roles that might not pay as much as blue collar roles such as nursing.

However, beyond the fun of beer pong, community games organized by “people managers”, and other issues–the fact is that it’s still an office. And the high expenses and other issues did catch up with WeWork.

Initial Attraction: Not Just Another Front Desk Job

One of the initial things that helped WeWork get onto the map was the “cool factor”. In most companies, people who are working a front desk role, or a reception role, do not think that they are in a cool job.

This wasn’t the case with WeWork. People who were college graduates and had no experience found themsvles suddenly with a company that had an “it factor”.

So, a graduate from a State school or some other less than prestigious college and who did not have serious professional experience might be able to say that they were working at WeWork.

You’d see people who might have worked as receptionists, or worked in a retail job, all of a sudden claiming to be operations leads or community leads. It was a selling point that the company was so cool.

This attraction led to a surge in hiring and many people who graduated college and wanted to work for a “cool company” were attracted to WeWork.

However, the reality of any front desk job is that you’re just working as a receptionist just like any other job. So, after the initial rush of working at a famous company, you might realize you’re simply checking people into an office.

Changing Tides? Return To Work and In Person Directives

One of the promising signs for co-working spaces is the return to work movement. As recently as this week, Chase has made it clear that they want people to return to the office.

This could very well mean that people will start again looking into co-working spaces, though many suspect that the first line will be large companies that have their own physical offices and not co-working spaces.