Breaking up with coworking…
From working from home to a co-working space to Brewex’s HQ : A journey
Four years. That’s how long I worked in solitary, from the comfort of my home.
I loved it.
I could churn out ideas and pixels one hour and in the next, take a power nap, or snack on processed foods. Everything seemed perfect and convenient.
Those were the days I worked as an independent design practitioner(fancy title for a freelancer) and didn’t need to interact much with anyone, save for my maid or the grocer. Lesser critical interactions were mostly limited to family or friends — but that didn’t happen very often. And I preferred it that way. I liked the noise of birds chirping and the air-conditioning humming over conversations. In retrospect, work had managed to seep into every aspect of my life.
Then, I co-founded Brewex.
The stress of a new venture and my lack of a social life, started taking it’s toll on me — mentally and physically. Without any interaction, stimulation or downtime, I got caught up in a permanent creative block.
I struggled to come up with new ideas or solutions.
Four years.
That’s how long it took for my poor work and lifestyle choices to come crashing down on me. I realised that something had to change.
Enter the Working Company. Small, unassuming, not too formal, no cubes, plenty of sunlight and warm interiors. The size of this space made it an immediate and easy sell for me. Because the people were small in numbers, so would be my interactions. Easy sell.
The change in environment brought about an immediate noticeable boost in creativity and my mood. I felt different. Productivity shot up. And with time, the occasional smiles and greetings became conversations. Before I knew it, co-workers became friends. I was working my social interactions muscle again and despite the initial soreness, I found that it recharged me and I learnt a lot from the wonderful exchanges and stories.
I had successfully implemented the hooked model in my life. It was about time I applied something reserved for my clients, to myself.
All went well for a while and soon enough (too soon), more work started to pour in. Which is when we decided to start hiring. And in came our very first employee, complete with his own dedicated space within our co-working space.
In the beginning, I went about my day as usual, like nothing much had changed. Which is what it felt like, except now I wasn’t just an entrepreneur, but also an employer.
We had to build a company culture.
I assumed separate sitting arrangements would provide space and freedom to work and establish individual relationships beyond us. We’d sync up multiple times a day to discuss on work, offer design critique and muse on life over coffee. This arrangement did seem to work fine. But, it was reminiscent of my previous work habit — highly individualistic and less of a team. It felt like working remotely, even when we were working from the same space.
Gradually, the realisation dawned on us that the only company culture that we had, was that of Working Company. Which we loved. But is this really how we saw Brewex shaping up? Now, with the addition of one more team member, it made sense to have our own office.
Which is where I write this from.
For the first time, we have a space that belongs entirely to us and I look forward to how this shapes up for us. And how we shape it. It’s been only a week, but we’re already ideating on adapting our processes, organising design meetups, collective viewings on design movies and talks, design discourse, opening up the space to fellow designers and more.
The future remains unclear. But we are looking forward to it.
Here’s to the next four years.
