I love working from home, and I love empowering my coworkers to work from home (or from anywhere they want to work).
For over 10 years, Stonemaier Games has entirely operated from home offices, and that’s still primarily the case. But in late 2022, I realized that a few of my more extroverted coworkers in St. Louis were missing face-to-face interactions. It made me realize that the flexibility of “work where you want” wasn’t entirely accurate because I wasn’t providing an alternative to working from home.
We could have bought or rented an office, but after 10 years of working from home, we didn’t know if we would actually use an office even if it were an option. So my newest coworker, Dave, went hunting for a coworking space, and he found an awesome, locally-owned option called Nebula.
Nebula offers a ton of options ranging from simply being a place to receive packages (rather than posting your home address everywhere) to dropping in and working where you want to having a dedicated office just for you. Most options are month to month, which I think is great for testing the waters of working outside the home. Also, I didn’t know this until I was looking through their website for this article, but they even offer a notary public!
We decided to get an office at Nebula; with a 12-month commitment, the total cost for the year is around $10k. At first, I wasn’t sure if I would use the Nebula office at all–as I said, I love working from home, and I lose 30 minutes of work time if I’m driving to and from the space.
However, I’ve recently realized that the coworking space is perfect for group playtests and for playing published games to feature on our game design YouTube channel. It’s more central for most of my coworkers, and it’s far less disruptive to my partner, Megan, who also works from home.
Nebula makes it easy to reserve conference rooms, so twice this week we met in the same room (the nice big table is shown in this photo), once for a game submission playtest and another for a learn-and-play session for Atiwa.
While I continue to mostly work at home, Dave goes to the Nebula office almost every day, and Alex is there a few times a week. Susannah joined us for the Atiwa game. Joe, Christine, and other Dave work in other states/countries, so it doesn’t do much for them (another reason to not go all-in on an office: modern business is more worldwide than it is local).
I’m really glad we gave this a try, and I appreciate Dave for finding such a great option for those at Stonemaier Games who want an alternative to working from home.
Have you ever tried a coworking space? What was your experience?
***
Also read:
- How to Work from Home with Your Significant Other
- My Latest Tweak to Working from Home
- Perks and Principles for My Coworkers at Stonemaier Games
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20 Comments on “Coworking Spaces as a Complement to Home Offices”
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[…] We warehouse and ship our games from Miniature Market for our products in the US, from Asmodee Canada for our products in Canada, from Spiral Galaxy in the UK, and from Aetherworks in Australia. My coworkers and I mostly work from home, though we rent part of a coworking space here in St. Louis. […]
[…] work from anywhere: We’ve always been a remote, work-from-home company, and this year it was neat to see my coworkers working from various places across the US and even from remote Mediterranean islands. At the same time, I also wanted to support coworkers who prefer not to work from home, so we also have a dedicated office in a coworking space in St. Louis. […]
[…] We recently transitioned from warehousing and fulfillment at Greater Than Games to Miniature Market for our products in the US and from Hubtrotter to Asmodee for our products in Canada, as well as Spiral Galaxy in the UK and Aetherworks in Australia. I still run Stonemaier Games out of my home office, and my coworkers mostly work from home, though we now rent part of a coworking space here in St. Louis. […]
I have also enjoyed working from home and have tried a small variation on it by inviting a coworker to commute to my home office space, which is a good way to provide a more formal arrangement for others while keeping an informal option for myself. It has worked quite well so far, and I’m excited to continue trying other options into the future!
Jared Richardson
Circle J Games
https://circlejgames.com
Yes! I loved our coworking space. We have a similar setup in terms of work from home so being able to use the coworking space for meetings and playtests was fantastic. Covid restrictions meant that it wasn’t a viable option for us long term, but it is a great community to be a part of if you find a good space.
Great post. I work for a largish employer (1000 people maybe) and we have roughly 250 employees in the office in our city. We have gone from no work at home ever to much more flexible with people able to work from home if they wish to (so lots of Teams meetings). I normally work from home one or two days a week, and that works for me.
Things that I miss working from home:
– running into people in the office who you have worked with quite a bit in the past, but now wouldn’t see at all because your role now has no crossover with theirs.
– casual tea-room chats with random people from other teams, about life, but sometimes about work stuff where they may have a common issue (that you wouldn’t otherwise find out about if you were at home).
One important thing for me about going to the office is being able to read great novels on my commute (via bus for 30 to 40 minutes). If I working from home I usually don’t get any reading done that day. It just doesn’t seem to happen.
Thanks for sharing, Craig. The value of those impromptu discussions and the reading time during the commute are echoed by others too.
We have similar options here, with offices, conference rooms, shared lunchrooms with all the other people who rent a space and even a gym I believe. In the end it is similar to some sort of gym membership.
You can come in for half a day a week, a full day, multible days, etc. You pick what suits you, it is a flexible solution.
I do not use it though as my colleagues are all over the world and I am the only one in the Netherlands. So I can’t face to face co-work. And, like you, I love working from home and have no problem staying focussed.
But…
Sometimes it is nice to commute (I walk or bike) to have a cleared border between work and home.
I use the local library. It is free (though I love to read, so I do have a membership)
They encourage that people work there, have meetings, do homework. They offer free wifi, electricity, a large table and smaller tables in case you want to seclude yourself a bit more. Soon they will even redecorate and add more determined spaces for working there. They asked the “regulars” for opinions and taking all the wishes into consideration.
I love the buzz, the occasional chat, the input from things that have nothing to do with my job but trigger me to see if I can somehow use a good idea for my work anyway.
When I started working from home I wanted a small set up and an as paperless office as possible. And this helps greatly. My office fits in a bag. Or at home, in a drawer. Once I am done with my work I put things away to have a clear division between work and private life.
This enables me to work where I want.
I can highly recommend changing up the work environment once in a while.
Even if you cannot physically work with your colleagues.
The library is a great recommendation, Liesbeth!
I went from doing a serving job at Applebee’s to full time work from home graphic design and, at first, I was elated. It gives me the freedom to homeschool my son and got rid of my old clunker of a car since we only really need one. Sometimes, going days without more than a hello/goodbye can make the days kind of dull and mindless.My wife and I joke that we should switch jobs since she’s the introvert and I’m the extrovert. Not to mention the distractions that come from being in your own home like kid needing me, dog, all my devices within reach. Not that I ever do anything that’s not work related during work like commenting on blog posts. Ahem
I miss the human component sometimes. Just having someone there to talk to so you can commiserate helps the mental state more than i thought it would. Awesome that you give your people that option and leave it open. I think more people would come into work if it were an open door policy like this and not a forced mandatory thing. And those that work better in solitude get the chance to be more efficient as well.
Thanks for your thoughts on this, Tony. Are you considering adding a coworking option to your work week, or is that not possible due to the homeschooling?
Not possible unfortunately. Plus my job provided me with a desktop computer so I’m not mobile at all. I make due. I’m using the time to get more involved with the board gaming community and learn all I can. Trying to make it one of those “in every curse is a blessing” type of situations. Once I figure out what the heck I’m doing maybe I’ll try to do what you did and ask for Wednesdays. You never know? Worst case scenario, I get fired and get a whole heck of a lot more freetime. ;)
I was working from home since March 2020 but started working in a co-working space this past fall. The rest of my law firm works remotely, so it’s just me at the co-working space, but I like having the office-home distinction again and I think it’s helped me to break up the day, as before I would work until dinnertime, put the kids to bed, and then work again. And my office is a 10-minute walk from my apartment and right by my kids’ school, so I’m still in the neighborhood and don’t lose a lot of time commuting.
That’s super convenient, Jon!
I’m a big fan of working from home, but I wouldn’t want to miss going to the office at least 2-3 times a week. It’s a good exercise (I go by bike from the train station), it ensures I meet people, and most importantly: a lot of important decisions are made when meeting up at the coffee machine. I don’t drink coffee myself, but I see it as a very important informal meeting place.
Also, working from the office gives me a much better distinction between my working day and my private life. On working-from-home days, I work much longer. Which is good for my employer, but not good for my work-life balance. :)
The thing I’m wondering most about in the Stonemaier situation (and feel free to refrain from answering if you don’t want to): with some people working in St. Louis and some (like Joe) working from another state: how do they feel about the co-working office? When everybody works from home, everybody is equally connected, not matter where they are. If some people regularly meet up in an office space, others might feel left out? I fully realise that the company culture of Stonemaier is good enough to prevent this becoming an issue, but when I learn about hybrid situations like these, I’m always curious how the “outsiders” experience this.
Karel: Thanks for sharing, and these are great points, particularly about work-life balance.
That’s an interesting question. We haven’t talked about it much, but I’ll bring it up to see how people feel about it.
I’m also working from a coworking space most days. Even as an introvert, I was going crazy being home alone during working hours for years.
Apart from being with other people, it gives me access to a much better printer than my own, a laminating machine (which was great for Rolling Realms development), infinite coffee that I don’t have to brew myself :-) and more.
I currently even have an extra table for free where I can leave a prototype game set up.
While I do spend time getting to and from the office, I see that as a benefit, not a loss of time because it makes me walk for about an hour each day, which I really should be doing anyway.
Morten: The laminating machine is a nice touch! Nebula has good coffee and a nice printer.
I’m glad you’ve given this a go as I’ve also found coworking spaces incredibly beneficial over recent years. I’ve been using them in one way or another for nearly 10 years now, typically splitting my time 50% in the space and 50% at home.
Not only does the space offer a nice change from being at home and come with benefits such as receipt of post and a place to playtest, but I’ve found it a great way to find other likeminded individuals.
In Bristol at least there are thousands of 1, 2, 3-person businesses and it’s nice to bump into people at a coffee machine and share stories. I’m a firm believer that bringing outside thinking into an industry is a great way to come up with new solutions and I’ve certainly found coworking spaces have fed into this way of thinking.
I’m glad you’ve found them beneficial, Frank! That’s a great point about how input from other industries can have a positive impact on what we’re creating.