By Indhira Desangles
Regarding the controversial news about the partial or definitive return to offices, including the giant Twitter, now led by Elon Musk, which is challenging a behavior that had become increasingly definitive in relation to remote or partial office work; and it is that the billionaire Musk has ended something that seemed unchangeable at Twitter: teleworking.
According to Bloomberg, Musk sent an email to his employees on Wednesday, November 9, 2022, announcing that remote work was no longer permitted, except in carefully reviewed exceptions. This message comes in light of the impending economic changes, which he describes as "arduous" and requiring "intense work" to succeed.
I've been reflecting on this issue, and it's definitely controversial. It's true that large multinationals have incorporated teleworking as one of the attractive benefits for acquiring and retaining talent. That's why executives from the "Twitter giant" have left the company in recent hours, seemingly as a sign of discontent with the radical transformation policies adopted by the new administration.
That said, it is this reflection that leads me to share with you a hypothesis, and that is that I cautiously view the possibility that these decisions to return to the "past" will be reconsidered, since in the same corporate real estate sector the new trend of coliving + coworking is increasing, and thus the architectural models of new buildings.
This trend is very ambitious and has significant proponents within the corporate and labor world. In fact, the survey "The Rise of the Hybrid Workplace," conducted by Cisco, shows that the post-COVID scenario is the gateway to a labor market with a more pronounced use of hybrid models, in which not everything will be working from home, nor will it be entirely in-person. The survey indicates that 6 out of 10 people will combine both modalities, with the expectation of working from home two or more days a week and the rest in the office.
New architectural designs are taking coliving very seriously as a concept based on sharing spaces and experiences in the professional sphere, but applied to personal life. Therefore, in addition to being a newly established residential phenomenon, it is also a lifestyle concept. A real estate alternative that allows younger people to access housing under different circumstances than usual.
Based on this concept, residents of an area will not only share common spaces, but will also exchange projects based on personal socialization. In short, a concept very similar to coworking, but in this case, adapted to a more personal level.
Without a doubt, both concepts - coworking and coliving - are a direct reaction to a change in the market structure in which new generations have a more autonomous vision in their way of living and working, based on the imperative need to solve mobility and commuting issues in large cities and to seek independence.
This is why I dare to predict that in the coming years, the boundaries between living, working, and even entertaining will begin to blur at a faster rate, paving the way for the integration of coworking and coliving.
Let's go further and think about our nature as human beings; that is, we are definitely more inclined to coexist than we think, since the sense of coexistence and collaboration is present in our most primary nature, so it is not surprising that instead of saying coworking and coliving, in the future we will call them "cohabitat".
