Not too long ago, people who had an office job talked about “being chained to a desk.” Today, a desk job is the most liberating of all employment options. Your desk can be at your house, in a coffee shop, in your van, or at what’s come to be called a “co-working space.”
Co-working spaces are typically modeled after the re-imagined office that was born back in the day when Google and Facebook were startups. It’s a mashup of an office, coffee shop, private club, and event space. And the best part is, the boss is never going to walk in – because there is no boss. You rent the desk yourself on an annual or monthly basis.
Peter’s guests on this edition of Out to Lunch both have co-working spaces – one on the Northshore in Covington, the other in New Orleans, in the Arts District.
Bradley Cook, Co-Founder of Palette Northshore, a co-working space in Covington
In Covington, Bradley Cook is Co-Founder of Palette Northshore, modeled to some extent after sister Palette co-working spaces in New York. In New Orleans, Hugh Breckenridge is Community Manager at The Shop Workspace in The Contemporary Arts Center on Camp Street. The Shop also has locations in Salt Lake City and Brooklyn, New York.
Hugh Breckenridge, Community Manager at The Shop Workspace, a co-working space in the CAC building in New Orleans
If you listen to podcasts and radio shows about business, or keep up with the finance punditocracy on TV, you’ll hear people pontificate about “The Future of Work.”
Like everything else about the future, nobody knows anything. Not for sure, anyway. What we do know, though, is the tyranny of the office cubicle is a relic of the past. Multiple studies find a significant majority of white-collar workers prefer some form of remote work, and over 30% say they would quit a job if they were compelled to show up at the office every day.
This demand for the freedom to work out of the office will more than likely ensure the popularity of co-working spaces well into any foreseeable future.
Bradley Cook, Eric Murrell, Peter Ricchiuti, Grant Morris, Hugh Breckenridge, Out to Lunch at Columns in Uptown New Orleans
Out to Lunch was recorded live over lunch at Columns in Uptown New Orleans. Photos by Jill Lafleur.
