The Coffee-House Crew
The recession has created more telecommuters as people adjust to furloughs, cope with being laid off from their jobs or enjoy being able to work from home one or two days a week, owing to employers cutting costs. But working from home can be as isolating as it is liberating, so some telecommuters are grabbing their laptops and heading out to the nearest coffee shop or diner.
The trend of working in places like Starbucks or Panera Bread has been developing slowly for several years, but over the past several months, it has caught on rapidly. In his article for the Washington Post, Digital Nomads Choose Their Tribes, Michael S. Rosenwald discusses this rapidly growing trend.
Thanks to the Internet and the prevalence of Wi-Fi, Rosenwald says, it’s possible for more telecommuters to enjoy the freedom of working from home while simultaneously fulfilling the need for human contact and interaction. One such telecommuter featured in Rosenwald’s article rotates among several different coffee shops in his area in order to get his people fix.
Some people, from a variety of career fields, want the communal feeling of working in an office, so they gather to “co-work,” side by side with their laptops, in public places or at a group member’s home. The gatherings are called jellies,” Rosenwald explains, “after a bowl of jelly beans the creators were eating when they came up with the name.”
Coffee house owners welcome the trend because it’s good for business. People are more willing to give a restaurant or coffee shop a try if they see a lot of other people already inside.
Despite the freedom of telecommuting, it can make a person feel isolated and lonely, especially independent contractors who have no direct company affiliation. So more and more telecommuters are packing up their laptops and doing their jobs in local coffee shops and eateries in an effort to have the best of both worlds.
