Working alone — together; the benefits of Co-working Sessions
Written by Kimberly Vircoe
I, like a lot of contemporary workers, wear several hats. In addition to volunteering for Chic Geek, I have run my own design studio for contract visual communications projects and recently took on a full-time remote gig as Community Developer for a national not-for-profit that supports coding skills for kids through communities and educators with Kids Code Jeunesse.
To say my days are varied would be an understatement; a sample day could include:
8am-4pm
- Facilitate virtual meetings with educators to support starting code clubs
- Run an online demo session with team members in the Maritimes to discuss email campaigns
- Build a Harry Potter-themed circuit project with microbits, wood, wire, and alligator clips
5pm-8pm
- Craft and schedule social media posts for a medieval cosplay campground
- Design a new webpage for a holistic nutritional specialist
- Design business cards and rack cards for a labour and delivery nurse to promote her prenatal classes
8:30pm-10pm
- Create icons and design elements for the upcoming Geeky Summit
- Write a blog piece about the benefits of co-working opportunities
Wash. Rinse. Repeat.
I love the variety. I get energized by the lack of routine and flexibility in my day. I save so much time not having to commute to a central workspace and I can take my dog for a walk whenever my brain gets stuck and needs a “wander-break.”
But…
It also means I’m alone. Although I do have the occasional face-to-face meetings with clients and jump on Google Hangouts throughout the day, it’s not the same as working alongside team members who you can bounce ideas off of and ask “hey — how would you approach ______?”
Don’t get me wrong — for me, the benefits of remote work have been such an amazing opportunity. As a mom of two young boys — the flexibility to pick up a puking kid or run a forgotten lunch bag to school is a “luxury” that my husband, who works in a far more traditional position, doesn’t really have. Yet, the deafening silence of listening to myself breathe for hours on end can become… lonely.
Enter Pop Up Co-Working Sessions. Facilitated by Chic Geek and the Calgary Public Library, these popup events were specifically created to get those of us in the Chic Geek community working remotely, an opportunity for real human interaction.
I attended the inaugural event in July with seven others at the current central library in downtown Calgary. Although I live waaaaaaay out in the burbs and avoid navigating downtown during the day at all costs, an easy hop on the C-train brought me right to the library with minimal frustration and commuting cost. Even better, the co-working event was scheduled from 10:00am — 2:00 pm so, I avoided the busiest times getting a seat both ways! Easy peasy.
When I arrived, I recognized some familiar faces from previous Chic Geek events as well as some new ones.
What struck me right off the bat was how varied everyone’s reasons for being there were.
That day, I worked with:
- a Chic Geek volunteer working on fall event planning and curious what others were looking for in terms of future events
- a full-time computer science student interested in networking opportunities
- a woman who specializes in Python from Brazil looking to grow her community connections
- another Chic Geek volunteer who recently made a career pivot and looking for extra eyeballs to look over a new website she was launching for her AirBnB business,
- and more…
We were all working on our own projects, had very different backgrounds, and were all looking to get something different out of the experience of working in a physical group. Really, we were all still working alone — but together. The ability to lean across the table and ask “what do you think of this background” or “do you know anyone who can help me with this?” was awesome to witness. Going in, I was skeptical that any of us would actually get anything done and figured it would end up being one big chat session, but it was strikingly obvious from the get-go that we were all there to get stuff done, just with the added benefit of supporting each other while doing it.
At the end of the session, a fellow Chic Geek-er said “wow, I had been stuck on that for days and it was so great just to get it DONE — finally!” a true testament to the fact that sometimes all you need is a change of scene to get unstuck or to find the motivation to jump into that thing you’d been avoiding.
Upon polling my “coworkers”, one of the surprising comments we all agreed on was that we wanted an opportunity for these sessions to happen more than once a month. We all wanted to find a way to not only see each other more often but to have a pre-scheduled commitment to put on pants and get out of our head bubbles. We also agreed that having to register kept us accountable for showing up, knowing it’s a small group by design and we were using a spot someone else may have wanted.
All in all, I love my remote work but I also love being part of a community.
For all the reasons I volunteer and attend events, the support of the people I meet in the Chic Geek community continues to be the biggest benefit and having the opportunity to blend my work-life with a fresh perspective is rare. I encourage anyone whose work is not tied to a physical space, to stay curious and try at least one Pop Up Co-working Session. I guarantee you will be pleasantly surprised at how a new environment, with supportive people, can really get the productivity-juices flowing.
The next Pop Up Coworking Session: September 13
REGISTER HERE >>
