Co-working is becoming an attractive choice for many remote workers and freelancers. The advantages include beating the boredom of a home office and lower costs. Co-working means you will be working with people who are not necessarily in your line of work and have no common interests. This means you have to maintain etiquette to keep the peace.
Be friendly
As much as you will be working with strangers, it pays to make a few friends. When you are not working on stuff that needs serious concentration, look up and see what the rest are doing. At least make friends with your neighbors on both sides. You may need to ask a silly question from time to time and you do not want people clamming up on you.
Being friendly will also open up your door to more opportunities in terms of networking. Your neighbor is more likely to give you business leads if you are on talking terms.
Self-sufficiency
When you are new to a co-working space, those you find there will be happy to help you settle in. however, do not expect this goodwill to last long. Settle in fast and stop asking around for the WiFi password. Be self-sufficient. Not many will be glad to unplug their laptop charger just so that you can plug in your mobile charger for 5 minutes.
Suck it up
Different people will be doing different things from music production to pushing sales on the phone. Expect a buzz above the normal noise levels in a normal office. Not many will take it kindly to being told to tone down their voice levels in the middle of a conference call. Just bear it and mind your own business.
Join the network
People are social animals. As much as you may not like that guy at C4 very much, make an effort to be on the co-working space social network. Follow on Twitter and throw in a few Tweets from time to time. This will make you part of the group and not look like a jerk asking questions that trending a week ago.
Kitchen etiquette
People are very touchy when it comes to eating and drinking. If the co-working space does not provide free coffee, tea or snacks carry your own. Eating someone’s stuff is an absolute no-no. In case there is kitchen space for preparing snacks and meals, remember to keep things as you found them. Do not leave the coffee maker full of used coffee beans. Rinse the cup after you use it and so on.
