The Hill's The future of work: Not the office or home covers an academic study showing that more people are working from "3rd places", which is anywhere that is not a person's home or regular place of work.
As the study's chart below shows (click to enlarge), workers reported spending about 12% of their working hours in 3rd places in November of 2021.
In terms of 3rd places, public places (coffee shops, libraries, etc.) were the most popular, followed by "a friend's house" and coworking spaces.
Regular readers know we've long covered coworking and the increasing use of 3rd places, such as coffee shops, gyms, and other spaces people work.
So the trend towards working in 3rd places is not new. But like many other trends, it's been dramatically accelerated by the pandemic-induced shift to remote work.
While we're on this topic, another interesting shift relates to one of our favorite trends - the paradox of place.
The paradox is that even though the Internet and connective technologies have made working remotely easier than ever, people and companies have increasingly clustered together in fewer locations, mostly in and around major cities.
Economists call this agglomeration, which proves yet again economists shouldn't be allowed to name things.
This is another trend impacted by the pandemic.
We're seeing signs that, thanks to the shift to remote work, the paradox of place is breaking down and workers and companies are geographically spreading out.
We expect both the trends towards greater use of 3rd places for work and economic de-agglomeration to continue.
