Millennials’ Preference for Collaboration Extends to Shared Workspaces
If the expectations of millennials in the workplace seems like a particularly bountiful resource for anyone discussing current trends in company culture, it’s in large part because, as of 2015, they’ve taken over the American workforce, with more than 1/3 of the labor pool comprised of 18 to 34 year olds. And while millennials have long been derided by some as lazy, entitled and narcissistic (all that in just one TIME cover story), there is no doubt that they are shaping the way we think about work.
And more evidence continues to pile up that more millennials want their work to be collaborative, not only in how it’s completed, but also in how it manifests itself physically, with a preference toward co-working spaces.
As part of the 2015 edition of their annual Audience Survey polling the “the attitudes and behaviors shaping early adopter consumers,” consumer marketing agency Protein found that millennials are a driving force behind the rise of communal working environments.
Per Protein: “Respondents valued their time and long-term goals over anything else, and would rather work at a start-up or multidisciplinary makerspace, where they can network, develop their skill sets and work on projects, than in a corporate office, with a traditional hierarchy.”
Fast Company likened this shift toward shared workspaces to the attitudes of workers who dramatically altered the realities of labor during the Industrial Revolution.
“It was the workers of the 1910s and 1920s who saw the rapidly changing economy and built the labor movement in response,” Fast Company‘s Sara Horowitz explained in an article entitled Why Millennials Understand the Future of Work Better Than Anyone Else. “With their comfort within the freelance economy and their understanding of networks, millennials are perfectly positioned to create the sustainable independent work economy that we – and they – need.”
More and more incubator projects are also popping up – like the examples cited by Protein, London’s Space and New York’s New Inc. – that further appeal to this enthusiasm for collaboration by offering events, workshops and peer-to-peer learning in addition to a shared office.
“Millennials are changing the status quo, and teamwork is at the crux of this shift,” writes Geil Browning in Inc. “The companies and leaders who embrace the change – and figure out how to advance alongside it – will achieve the success required to be at the forefront of their industries.
