Work-From-Home (WFH), now a necessity for many corporate workers, has been an upgrade to the quality of life for some, but not for everyone or not all of the time. On the positive side, no more exhausting commute, more flexibility in work hours, better control of the work-life balance. On the other hand, the home office infrastructure may not always be conducive to productivity at work, not to mention the lack of serendipitous learning that comes with social interaction in a professional environment and loneliness that can lead to what’s known as the Home-Office Syndrome.
But is there a way to combine the benefits of both WFH and work at the office? Can this be done in a budget-friendly way?
“Yes to both,” said Laurent Dhollande, CEO of Pacific Workplaces. That’s why our sister company, San Francisco-based CloudVO, has launched the CloudTouchdown Pass. That pass enables people to check in a safe private office at a flexible office or coworking space on a part-time basis when WFH comes short.” For less than $200 per month, CloudTouchdown Pass holders can access up to 20 hours of private office use per month in an affiliated location anywhere in the network. Count on $300 for 50 hours. With 900 locations to choose from, chances are that one is located very close to your home.
“Yes,” said Rickey Sanchez of Flash Parking, emphatically, as he recently discovered that WFH just wasn’t working for him anymore. Pre-pandemic, Sanchez traveled frequently throughout the Northwest, but as travel came to a halt, he found himself working from home full-time. Sanchez lives with his wife and two children, ages 5 months and 2 years, and when his youngest was born in May, he lost his home office to the nursery. He spends a lot of time on calls every day and has tried to make it work, even working from the garage at times, far away from napping babes. He would move from room to room to accommodate the family, but the arrangement became tiresome.
Amidst the pandemic, Sanchez opted for a coworking subscription at Pacific Workplaces Roseville, just minutes away from his home. “It was a blessing,” said Sanchez. “I no longer have to worry about waking the baby up during a call and I have significantly upgraded my work environment from the garage or the kitchen table. Now I can fully concentrate on my work.” That’s how Work-Near-Home complements Work-From-Home effectively.
“Yes,” said John Kyle. Kyle is a freelance web developer and an artist– singer and songwriter to be exact. He’s gone from busking in Harvard Square to performing at music festivals, songwriter showcases, and venues across the United States. Kyle is from Los Angeles but, as he said, “escaped SoCal after high school to play hacky-sack at Cabrillo and surf my way to a literature degree at UCSC.” After graduating, he decided Santa Cruz was too pricey and roamed far and wide looking for a place to call home. He spent some time in a corporate IT job cubicle in Sacramento, then headed to New England to pursue music. He busked and played pubs and clubs from Portland, Maine to Boston, Massachusetts and Athens, Georgia.
“But no matter where I was, I pined for the magical shores of Santa Cruz,” Kyle added. In April, Kyle decided to head back to Santa Cruz and stay for good. “Someone mentioned NextSpace,” he said, “and I thought: that’s exactly what I need – a headquarters where I can do my freelance IT/web development work and reconnect with the community.” Working from home was not practical. Kyle needed an “office” to concentrate on his IT freelance work but also to bump into people. “NextSpace is the perfect place to work. I love being here in the heart of downtown, and constantly meet great people here. Happy to be starting online classes next week at Cabrillo to pursue a music degree, so I’ll be doing a lot of studying here at NextSpace for a few years.”
Sanchez asked his company if they would pay the $139/month coworking subscription at Pacific Workplaces in Roseville. Richard from Flash Parking said, “We were very happy to help with Rickey’s particular situation. Work-From-Home was clearly not the right solution for him, at least not all the time. Using a subscription at Pacific Workplaces makes it do-able and within budget.”
At first, Sanchez was a bit concerned about the risk of going back to an open-space office during the pandemic, but his concerns were mitigated by Pacific Workplaces’ Health and Safety Policy. “The steps that the staff took to ensure health and safety made me feel immediately comfortable and that I was in a safe environment. As safe as my home.” Indeed, Pacific Workplaces takes the health and safety of its members seriously. Measures such as requiring masks in common areas, the de-densification of meeting rooms and the coworking area, providing “sanitation stations,” the constant sanitizing of high-touch points, use of Nanoseptic materials, and thoughtful engineering of the traffic flow throughout the space have been implemented to provide an environment that is just as safe as, if not safer than, your home.
Dhollande added, “All-day zooming has its benefits too. I feel I am more efficient at connecting with the many parts of my business more than ever before. One of the unexpected benefits of Zoom meetings is that I made connections with people I don’t see very often. Now I can interact with folks in our Bakersfield or Reno locations that I don’t often have a chance to visit, being based in San Francisco. Zoom meetings have allowed me to put a face to all of our 75 employees even though they are spread out in 18 locations.”
About Pacific Workplaces
Pacific Workplaces (PAC for short) are great flexible office and coworking places, with a wide range of part-time and full-time furnished office spaces including virtual offices, private offices, and mini-suites, in a shared infrastructure environment, with curated communities that maximize networking opportunities and serendipity. Members have access to safe meeting rooms, coworking areas, business lounges, enterprise-grade Internet connection, VoIP telephony, phone answering services, IT support, an online legal library, and preferential access to a network of over 900 touchdown locations worldwide, under a pay-per-need hosted model PAC refers to as Workplace-as-a-Service™. Most of the PAC centers are located in Northern California and all are operated by PBC Management LLC under the Pacific Workplaces and NextSpace brands.
About CloudVO
CloudVO is a provider of comprehensive on-demand workspace solutions under a Workplace-as-a-Service™ model. CloudVO supports work-from-home and distributed workforces by providing part-time and full-time access to professional offices, coworking space, virtual offices, and meeting rooms at 900 affiliated locations worldwide.