A Telecommute Option

June 22, 2004 1:30 PM

Can't think at home? Working from home, but feeling isolated?

Is this the latest new fangled fad in office space concepts?
posted by blahblah (18 comments total)

That's hilarious - I think; anyway, thanks!
posted by carter at 1:41 PM on June 22, 2004

"Members can....bring the baby (and they’ll deal with any crying)".

Ohhhhhhh, hell no.

Cubicles called a "touchdown spaces"? What kind of nightmare is this they're creating!?!?

*checks calendar in hopes it's April 1st.*
posted by Salmonberry at 1:58 PM on June 22, 2004

I might be odd, but I think it's great. Working from home for long stretches of time can turn you into the Unabomber. However, I do want a discount for the dignity I lose each time I say 'touchdown spaces'.
posted by 4easypayments at 2:05 PM on June 22, 2004

I actually talked with some people a few years ago about starting up something like this. We all sort of came to the conclusion that it would require us all doing a lot of the things that we disliked the most about work, but for other people. And then having to take responsibility for them...

As a part of the larger movement to virtualize, it's a telling sign -- it will be interesting to watch them and see what they do. Personally, I don't think I'd like using their service -- just never been that crazy about offices. Or be able to afford it, for that matter: When I "work for myself", my existence is pretty marginal ("self employed" being a euphemism 'round these parts for "scratching together freelance gigs to make rent payments").

But if you could really make affordable use of their facilities for things like meetings and brainstorming sessions -- well, I've had a use for that several times in the last few months. I even considered sneaking the workgroup into my day-job office to use the whiteboards.
posted by lodurr at 2:08 PM on June 22, 2004

Hey, sign me up. I could get my entire development staff out of the office to where they can actually get something done and leave my Ops staff to hold down the fort. The team workrooms would be really nice. I don't think it's that crazy. It's can't be much more expensive than a month of $4 lattes, and having a receptionist to fend off harte-hanks would pay for itself rapidly, never mind not being sandwiched into crappy left-over spaces scattered throughout our facilities.

The lattes are included, right?
posted by ulotrichous at 2:08 PM on June 22, 2004

ulotrichous: I don't think it's supposed to an off-site facility for corporations (and I think off-sites can be very good), but a place for people who can't/won't work at home. As such I think that one of the bigger disadvantages would be that you would be in a building surrounded by dozens of *other* people who also can't/won't work from home. Which would be great for productivity.

Re. 'WorkClub' (luv those intercaps), I'm just now reminded that 'Job Club' was (and for all I know may still be) a service offered by the UK government to get people of the dole. In my day attendance was compulsory, and you had to sit in a dingy office writing out job apps to the chicken plant or perfume factory, sending them off using the free stamps.
posted by carter at 2:17 PM on June 22, 2004

As someone who's been working out of the home for...a long time, I've been predicting that something like this would happen for about 10 years.

What I didn't count on 10 years ago was that every coffee shop in town would have wifi and everybody would carry cellphones. Admittedly a coffee shop doesn't have everything this, uh, workclub does, but it's free, buzzword-free, and good enough. If coffee shops put in copy machines (weird as that sounds), they'd basically be there. I've met people who work in virtual companies that have all their meetings at a neighborhood coffee shop.
posted by adamrice at 2:26 PM on June 22, 2004

*Checks calendar to make sure it's not 1998
posted by destro at 2:29 PM on June 22, 2004

Nice link, thanks.
posted by yoga at 3:07 PM on June 22, 2004

weird, but interesting
posted by Grod at 3:39 PM on June 22, 2004

For some reason, I'm reminded of the failed Chiat Virtual Office, though this seems a bit less unconventional.
posted by brownpau at 3:43 PM on June 22, 2004

A cheaper option would probably be to get a laptop-bluetooth-mobile phone setup and go hang out in an Ikea store all day.
posted by boredomjockey at 4:16 PM on June 22, 2004

I like the idea. Better than a coffee shop with a copy machine is a low-cost office space with an espresso machine.

I'd happily pay a walk-in fee of a couple of bucks to keep a secretary, access WiFi, and have a workspace. I'd happily pay a few dollars more whenever I needed a meeting space, whiteboard room, etc. And I'd even pay -- though not through the nose -- for each time I use the printer/scanner/etc.

And it must be air-conditioned. My town is hitting the high 30s today. Ugh.
posted by five fresh fish at 4:17 PM on June 22, 2004

Maybe I'm too cynical, but I kind of think its a big marketing ploy for Herman Miller. i.e. All over will be Mirra chairs, the next generation Aeron.
posted by rorycberger at 5:28 PM on June 22, 2004

Crazy. A friend of mine is about to open a similar space in Kansas City after telecommuting for several years. I think it is a very cool idea. As much as I prefer it, working at home for long periods of time can be really unhealthy and more importantly, uninspiring.
posted by shoepal at 7:33 PM on June 22, 2004

In New York.
posted by thomascrown at 9:35 PM on June 22, 2004

"It was a bizarre club with cages, whips and other apparatus hanging from the ceiling"
Gotta love this part .
-whoops, wrong thread.
posted by pekar wood at 5:22 AM on June 23, 2004

I can't remember where I read it, but I believe it was posted on MeFi a year or so ago: In an article about working from home, it was said that one is always "just a hairs breadth from masturbation".

Which, of course, is entirely true. When you're in your underwear and can point your web browser anywhere, nature takes its course. Not for me, of course, as I don't want to go blind.

Does Gate-3 provide facilities for this?
posted by aladfar at 7:54 AM on June 23, 2004