Last summer we did a lot of interviews (over 60) with members of U.S. coworking facilities. One message we consistently heard was coworkers felt they were more productive at a coworking facility than they were working from home or from coffee shops.
We heard this so consistently, we included several folks explaining why in our Voices of Coworking video.
Office Nomads, a coworking facility in Seattle, discusses the same topic in their blog post Negotiating Your Coworking Membership With Your Boss. Key quote:
The most important and positive element that people gain from their time at coworking spaces though, is the productivity.
What makes this really interesting is the amount of research saying most people who work from home are more productive than they are at their offices. For example, the Costs and Benefits of Telecommuting are nicely described by the smart folks over at the Telework Research Network. A major benefit of telecommuting from home, backed up by numerous examples, is increased productivity.
So let's see here. Working from home is more productive than working in a traditional office. Working in a coworking facility is more productive than working from home.
This suggests that the least productive place to work is a traditional office.