Maintaining Trust in Coworking Settings

Remote workers often use shared coworking spaces where colleagues and friends congregate to work alongside but not with each other. This environment often includes a wide open floor plan with desks, bars, and seating areas without extensive separation or seclusion. This can occur when working from home too, often with a spouse, significant other, or roommate sitting at the same table, adjoining desks, or opposite corners of a room.

While coworking can mitigate some issues surrounding working remotely, it also comes with its own risks. Such shared settings challenge your productivity, your coworker’s trust, and your employer’s security.

Don’t Fall Prey to (Extensive) Socializing

When working alongside others that don’t share your same work tasks and motives, it’s even harder to stay focused on that work. While coworking can be a welcome break from potential isolation, it doesn’t come with license to goof off more and diminish productivity when your geography changes. Nor should you change your behavior and risk undermining the built-up trust of your team.

Expectation: Coworking isn’t about frequent chit-chat about where you are meeting up for dinner. Stay focused and be productive.

“I definitely want to catch up about that. Let’s do a coffee break a little later though, for I have a bunch of stuff I need to get done.”

Outcome: You’ll be more productive, and you won’t risk being perceived as the undisciplined or unproductive by your coworkers and management.

Acknowledge You Aren’t Alone

If you are collaborating remotely — let’s say, via a Gotomeeting Audio & Video call — and all remote collaborators see and hear is you, it’s reasonable for them to assume you are alone.

Therefore, expect them to be startled when they hear a loud cough or emerging voice nearby (even, in my case, but a few feet from the person I was talking to). What your co-worker thought was a private, confidential setting to potentially address sensitive topics has unexpectedly and uncomfortably changed.

Expectation: Acknowledge that other people are present when it’s possible that your collaborators are unaware of their presence.

“Good morning! Oh, just so you know, I’m working alongside coworkers beside me, so we aren’t alone. Is that ok?”

Outcome: You’ll earn your coworker’s trust rather than break it, establish expectations for the appropriate level of conversation, and give them the chance to reschedule the conversation if they wish.

Respect — and Understand — Confidentiality

Just as important as your relationship with your teammates, it’s important to respect your organization’s rules of confidentiality as well as — for consultants — the confidentiality of their clients. Enabling colleagues closeby to listen to your conversations and look at your screen may violate that that no matter how innocuous you judge it to be.

Expectation: Talk with your manager to ensure there isn’t a conflict of interest, and never disclose the content of what you are working on — via what others can hear or see — without approval.

“I plan on working from the coworking space tomorrow morning, and there will be a few other freelancers present. Any concerns that I take the client call from there during that time?”

Outcome: You’ll avoid those uncomfortable admonishments — or more dire consequences — from your management when it’s discovered you’ve not sufficiently met those contractual expectations.

Originally published at www.eightshapes.com on September 25, 2013.