Lessons learned from commercial coworking pilot

By Jeff Woodworth, Client Communication Specialist

Federal employees in Denver, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. participated in a Commercial Coworking trial week to get a better understanding of how the concept works.

The lessons learned from opportunities like this one are invaluable and these ‘kick the tires’ experiences help ensure that GSA’s solutions are useful. GSA will also provide aggregated feedback to industry in efforts to help foster innovations that meet government needs.

More than 30 agencies participated including the U.S. Department of State, U.S. Department of Interior and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. As GSA continues to help shape what innovative work spaces and practices will look like, we’re sharing some of the feedback we received in a survey following the weeklong coworking pilot.

What participants liked:

• Ability to work alongside employees from other federal agencies.
• Energizing and motivational atmosphere.
• Space is more modern than federal space, and;
• Ability to work at various locations and the availability of locations are closer to home.

What they disliked:

• Lack of access to monitors.
• Noisy common work areas.
• Security concerns for laptop/federal equipment (could not leave unattended - even for breaks).
• Lack of affordable/convenient parking, and;
• Commute to site (same as federal offices).

What is coworking?

Coworking is an arrangement in which workers of different organizations share office space, allowing cost-savings and convenience through the use of common infrastructures such as equipment, utilities and receptionist and custodial services.

Learn about GSA’s coworking offerings in both commercial and federally owned space.