Tag: Work

Pret a working

Posted on by philipdodson

I had some time to kill, as the train I was going to catch was cancelled. I decided to go and do my writing in Pret’s by Victoria Station.

So I got a ‘dash’ tea, which I have learnt is Pret speak to avoid getting a rancid milky tea. I have my headphones in and volume is pretty much on bleeding ears level and I still get their bland irritating pop infiltrating my head.

Anyway, I added a Pret Bar to my order, looks healthy, but once you bite into it and it tastes really good, you know that it is going to be about 500 calories.

Someone opposite, who was working away on her super shiny Mac, has packed up, but saved her seat by leaving her coat. It’s funny that, if this is your permanent workspace, then the toilet trip is a regular nightmare.

Pack up and risk losing your seat or take you laptop to the toilet? I guess you’d always opt for keeping the laptop over losing your seat. Losing her coat is clearly a risk worth taking versus the prime comfy seat she has by the window.

I am sooooooooo glad that I’ve opted for a seat right under the speaker, where the shit bland crap is coming from.

Looking round there are people having meetings, people working on laptops, people reading and few people who look like they are taking a well deserved rest and just having a coffee.

coffee shop working

The women’s back – wasn’t a toilet break, she has restocked with drinks and stuff to eat, clearly she’s been here a while and the guilt was starting to takeover. She felt that it was time to justify her seat for another hour or so by buying something.

The people nearest to me are having a meeting, discussing the ins and outs of the handling of what sounds like an HR type situation. Thank god I only worked in that corporate world for a few years.

It strikes me however, that this kind of conversation would be better off being held in somewhere slightly less open. But I guess like me, no one is really that interested in what others have got to say. It is a pretty dull issue, maybe I might have listened a bit more if the person they were discussing had been caught doing something on the board room table.

On the other side is a woman making what sounds like business related calls. Hopefully they aren’t ones to clients, as I doubt they’d be overly impressed by the background music. She is very smartly dressed, so imagine this is your lawyer calling you from what sounds like a Soho wine bar. Wouldn’t bother me, but many wouldn’t be too impressed.

So I’ve eaten my Pret Bar yummy and I am half way through my tea. Shit I’ve not got the hang of this yet. People are circling in uniforms clearing tables, if I finish too soon, they’ll clear my stuff and then I sit here with my laptop and nothing else.

I imagine a light will start flashing about my seat ‘free loader alert’ ‘free loader alert’ will come up.

I think it is slightly worse having headphones in, as their music is combining with mine to create the worst mix ever made.

The other thing, I am a people watcher in these kinds of environments, so I am finding it a little difficult to concentrate as people move in and out.

If I was here for any length of time, it would be weird not to have any conversation, as normally when you’re in a working space with others, then you stop for a chat now and again.

Can you strike up a conversation in a coffee shop? I think if I got up and went over to someone else’s table and started a conversation,that they might think I’m a bit odd. So I’ll stay here pretend to drink my empty tea and put my head down to avoid contact with the staff.

I have been here about 20 minutes and done my writing, drank my tea, eaten my cake and now I am probably ready to move on. I know many do work regularly in this environment, but it’s not for me. I guess it’s fine for a quick stop, catch up on emails or a short informal meeting, but for a prolonged period it would be hard.

I am using my Mi-Fi as trying to log on to their’s was a hassle and hassle is not what you want.

OK and the other thing, I run a co-working space, so I might be a little less than objective. But I do genuinely believe that all the people working in here would be happier, more productive and more creative working from a co-working space than from a coffee shop.

To home work or not to?

Posted on by philipdodson

This is an interesting dilemma for millions of freelancers. There are obvious attractions to working from home when you are a freelancer, especially in the early days of setting up, as costs are often an issue.

Home worker

People see the costs savings of not having to commute, not having to buy lunches, not paying for space and generally the time savings too.

They initially view working from home to be distraction free, especially attractive if you’ve just left the open plan office of your previous paid employment job.

You also feel that you will be happier at home, as you can enjoy a work/life balance, that previously you could only dream of with the ‘7am to 7pm’ life of working for someone else.

However, after a while, what happens is, you realise that you get increasingly lonely working at home, you start to crave those ‘distractions’ of others. You come to the conclusion that some of those distractions were in fact valuable interactions.

You miss the knowledge sharing, the boost to morale of having someone to share things with, especially important when things are going less well. After all, we are all going to have crap days.

The next thing, you find is that the motivation starts to drop, as you ease into a blurred work/life environment. There are often distractions in an office, but there are different ones at home.

Like partners, children, pets, Jeremy Kyle, Playstation (maybe this just me), shops, washing to hang out, dinner to put on, ironing etc etc. OK, so we will have varying degrees of self-discipline, but you will get distracted.

Cabin fever sets in and that’s when it is time to get out the house and seek people. Although often people think that the solution is to head to a coffee shop.

The challenge with working in a coffee shop is that they are noisy and the wrong sort of nosiy – music, kids etc. Then typically the Wi-Fi is poor, you feel guilty that you haven’t bought a coffee for at least an hour, there is still no chance of any meaningful conversation and of course you will have to take your laptop to the toilet. When you come back your seat will be gone.

Until more recently the next option was very often a serviced office, which for most freelancers was a cost and commitment too far.

Now there are options – coworking spaces have sprung up all over world and are opening at a rapid rate as the rise globally in self-employment continues to grow off the charts.

What coworking offers, if you find the right one, is a flexible workspace, so you can still enjoy the good elements of home working. It will provide you with a community, something to belong to and that for me is the biggest benefit of coworking over full time home working.

As a freelancer, who has left the world of paid employment for the freedom of self-employment, you have closed the door on your support system, the community of colleagues and that leaves you on your own, no longer belonging.

What coworking provides is others to share ideas, share knowledge, help you and to do business with. It is the serendipity of those chance meetings, that will lead eventually to opportunity to grow your business, that you will never get being at home.

The other advantages of coworking spaces is they often run workshops, events, business networking groups. They can provide you access to mastermind groups and mentoring. So a chance to grow your network beyond the coworking space regulars and get invaluable advice for you and your business.

At the end of the day businesses, especially solo-preneurs, are all better of working and collaborating with others than they are trying to ‘row their own boat’.

Human beings are designed to be social and to work together and not be on their own.

This is what is critical in coworking – collaboration. Your products/service etc will be greatly enhanced by working with others. You will also increase your reach and customer base by sharing and working with others.

So the answer to the question ‘To home work or not to?’ is – not to home work all day every day, as you risk isolation and missing opportunities to grow you and your business.