Axios on The Rise of “Third Workplaces”

The pandemic has accelerated many work trends. But the dramatic and rapid shift to remote work has probably been the most potent trend impacting the way businesses operate. 

And as is covered in the Axios article The Rise of “Third Workplaces”, the shift to remote work is not just a binary choice between your home and your office. 

People can work in many other places, including coworking spaces, libraries, coffee shops, hotels (in the lobby or rooms), private clubs, and even outdoors in parks and other public places.

Of course, the concepts around “the third place” are hardly new.  The term was popularized in the 80’s and 90’s. 

The idea of a third workplace is also not new. 

If you’ve walked into a Starbucks over the past decade or so, you know that even pre-pandemic coffee shops were popular workplaces. 

And, of course, the coworking industry was built on the idea that people need 3rd places to work.  

So we laughed when we read in the Axios article implied the third workplace was a new trend and that “There was a small market of remote or hybrid workers seeking out third places before the pandemic,”

Most research on remote work shows that at least a quarter of U.S. workers spent at least some time working in third place locations before the pandemic. That’s not a small market.

But we agree with the article that more will do so in the future.

See our coworking section for more on third workplaces.  It’s a pretty big section because we’ve been covering third workplaces for over a decade.