Does your company reimburse for co-working spaces?

kategasparrinilicsw·Jun 22, 2022

Posted in:All Things Remote Compensation Productivity

Hi all, I am looking into adding some benefits for our employees (we are a fully remote company) and wondering about offering a co-working space stipend given that some people benefit from being around others and prefer that to working alone at home.

My question is, does your company offer this as a benefit and how much do they offer per month?

teresaman·Jun 22, 2022

I haven't looked into this extensively so I'm not sure what the actual terms are, but I know my company (Superhuman) uses https://www.deskpass.com/!

LucyN·Jun 23, 2022

Yup - our org has been fully remote since it’s inception in 2003, though pre-COVID there had been frequent in person meetings, client on-sites, etc. Since COVID our ways of working changed a bit, so coworking spaces were added as a benefit. So far it seems to be used mostly by those who travel and want to meet up with their coworkers but we have had a few individuals use them to get ‘out of the house’ as needed. I think it’s a nice addition as we grow, since not everyone works the same.

kategasparrinilicsw·Jun 23, 2022

Would you mind sharing how much they provide for this benefit?

LucyN·Jun 24, 2022

As far as I know we don’t have a set budget. I believe it’s something to work out with team leads. I’ll add that we are a fairly small org (less than 75 full time employees) but as we grow, we’ll probably get an official policy in place.

ritapalanjian·Jun 23, 2022

When I was working full time, I was working in colocating space and loved it. I still work there as I am in search of my next career and job. I work out of Staples. I do not have the space in a small apartment to have conference calls with all the noise. I didn't even bother asking for reimbursement because I knew the answer would be no. We had office locations that I could travel to, however, I didn't drive all the way to the city or drive an hour to other locations. I made the choice to get a space closer to my home so I would be available to my kids (they were in HS at the time). If you are contemplating, look to it as an investment for your peace, networking opportunities, and tax break (I claimed it with my taxes: talk with your accountant first).

caasey·Jun 23, 2022

My previous company offered 120/mo and the reasoning behind this was that it was supposed to be about the cost of going into a coworking space once per week or 4x per month. I definitely appreciated this benefit for a remote role but admittedly did not use it very much mostly because there was so much work to do and I need/want a proper desk for working - from my limited experience, you have to pay a lot extra to use a desk at a coworking space... if I had to make a suggestion, it would be to try and figure out how likely your employees are to use this benefit and then try to partner with some locally run spaces (WeWork is fine and has so many locations, but they honestly all vary and going back to my point about a desk, is so much more expensive if you want one and there's no desk option for someone just dropping in).

madisonpollardshore·Jun 24, 2022

My company doesn't, but one of the companies I interviewed with did, and I think they offered between $300 and $500 a month for a local co-working space.

kategasparrinilicsw·Jun 24, 2022

Thank you all for providing such helpful info!

Nads21·Jun 26, 2022

My organization provides co-working space as a benefit that staff can opt in to. Staff that opt in and plan to use co-working space at least 8 times a month are given a WeWork membership and those that plan to use it less than 8 times are given a Desk Pass membership.