Is anyone aware of coworking places that have a big room where 4+ people are each on phone/video calls, each with a different company?
At Collective Agency there seems to be increased happiness/coziness when 2 or 3 people are on sofas nearby each other, each quiet on a videocall, much moreso than when each person is in their own conference/phone room. People here seem a lot happier with that usually than being at their desk among people who aren’t usually on calls.
The main issue would likely be the person who speaks way too loud and isn’t able to self-moderate… they would likely need to be required to only take calls in phone rooms.
Curious for examples of where this works well. I’m thinking of adding a 400sf or 600sf phone room with lots of small sofas, in addition to our existing rooms at one of our locations.
Also are there any studies on happiness/joy (and increasing it) for people on phone or video calls many hours a day, vs a couple hours a day, vs almost never?
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Alex Linsker | Business Owner
Collective Agency
(503) 517-6900 office | (503) 369-9174 mobile
3050 SE Division, Suite 245 | Portland Oregon 97202
511 SW 10th Ave, Suite 1108 | Portland Oregon 97205
Alex.
In one of our spaces, we have offices that are divided by 4 dedicated desks. This rooms were setup and offered as a louder room for those that make more phone calls or attend more meetings than most. They all use head phones and spend most of the day on some sort of call. The room never has an open desk. I think if the rooms are offered with that in mind, it works well. The offices are 12x12 and include 4 sit/stand desks.
Hope that helps give an example.
Josh
Proximity Space
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On Saturday, August 5, 2017 at 1:24:02 PM UTC-6, Alex Linsker wrote:
Is anyone aware of coworking places that have a big room where 4+ people are each on phone/video calls, each with a different company?
At Collective Agency there seems to be increased happiness/coziness when 2 or 3 people are on sofas nearby each other, each quiet on a videocall, much moreso than when each person is in their own conference/phone room. People here seem a lot happier with that usually than being at their desk among people who aren’t usually on calls.
The main issue would likely be the person who speaks way too loud and isn’t able to self-moderate… they would likely need to be required to only take calls in phone rooms.
Curious for examples of where this works well. I’m thinking of adding a 400sf or 600sf phone room with lots of small sofas, in addition to our existing rooms at one of our locations.
Also are there any studies on happiness/joy (and increasing it) for people on phone or video calls many hours a day, vs a couple hours a day, vs almost never?
–
Alex Linsker | Business Owner
Collective Agency
(503) 517-6900 office | (503) 369-9174 mobile
3050 SE Division, Suite 245 | Portland Oregon 97202
511 SW 10th Ave, Suite 1108 | Portland Oregon 97205
Hey Alex,
This is an interesting observation and something we probably all have seen but not documented. We have a four person office much like Josh’s that has four permanent desks in it with four different companies. They seem to get along rather well and take phone calls regularly. With several conversations going on at once the individual probably isn’t likely to focus on just that one conversation.
Instead of us building out phone rooms it would be more cost effective and community building if this is proven to be true.
Thanks Josh and Craig,
I’m thinking about moving forward with a large phone room at one location, in addition to the current main coworking room; this phone room would be almost as large as our main suite, and people could go between the two.
I think they might be two different coworking places, each with their own governance processes, and overlap between the two.
At your 4-person offices with multiple companies, do you have sound insulation or visual blocking (such as cubicles) between the desks, or extra sound absorption on the walls? It sounds like a regular room from how you described it. We don’t have cubicles but I’m wondering if that might help. Also, do the 4 people in the room each sit in a corner facing the middle of the room, or sit in the middle of the room facing each other, or on the edges of the room facing the walls? Do they keep their headphones on almost all the time?
Thanks,
Alex Linsker, Collective Agency
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On Thursday, August 10, 2017 at 3:56:19 PM UTC-7, Craig Baute - Creative Density Coworking wrote:
Hey Alex,
This is an interesting observation and something we probably all have seen but not documented. We have a four person office much like Josh’s that has four permanent desks in it with four different companies. They seem to get along rather well and take phone calls regularly. With several conversations going on at once the individual probably isn’t likely to focus on just that one conversation.
Instead of us building out phone rooms it would be more cost effective and community building if this is proven to be true.