Reader’s Choice: Allwork.Space’s Most Read Articles Of 2019

Published on December 31, 2019 - By Cecilia Amador de San José

• 2019 was an eventful year in the flexible workspace industry, and many events featured on the pages of Allwork.Space.
• As we come to the end of this year and head into a new decade, here are the most popular articles of 2019.
• There are a few surprises in the list, and it’s not all about WeWork. Read on to see if your favorite article of the year made our top 15.

2019 was an eventful year for the flexible workspace industry and Allwork.Space was there to cover most of it; from failed IPOs to consolidations, the rise of wellness, and expansions. In case you missed some of these, we put together a 5-minute wrap of 2019’s most notable, and memorable, industry events. 

As the industry has grown and evolved, so has Allwork.Space. This year we published more articles than ever before and we also launched our own branded podcast on the future of work. Our growth is a direct reflection of the trust you, our readers, have placed in us to deliver news and trends that are relevant and valuable for you.

As we come to the end of this year and head into a new decade, we wanted to share with you our most-read articles of 2019. 

15. Finally, A Hotel Coworking Space That Gets It Right

Having traveled and worked in over 50 coworking and shared workspaces, Allwork.Space’s digital nomad Robert Kropp shares the details of how he finally enjoyed coworking from a hotel during a trip to Dubai. For Robert, Nest — a coworking space within the Tryp by Wyndham Hotel in Dubai, strikes the right balance between high-level hospitality, great design, and amazing perks. Read his whole take on the experience here. 

14. CBRE Launches New Coworking Brand, Hana

Late last year, CBRE announced its official entry into the coworking industry with the launch of Hana, a subsidiary that provides flexible office space and coworking memberships under management agreements with landlords. In September of 2019, Hana’s first flagship location opened in PwC Tower at Park District in Dallas. The coworking subsidiary is expected to expand its footprint in the US and the UK starting next year. 

13. WeWork’s Notes Are Trading Subpar, Here’s Why That Matters

Just a few days before the news got out that WeWork was considering filing for an IPO, reports came out that the company’s bond debt was already trading sub-par. Even back then, the market’s overall lack of long-term confidence in the company was an issue. Being in the “junk bond” range could potentially make it harder for the company to raise money in bonds in the near future, something that actually came true after WeWork published its S-1 and faced harsh criticism for many of its practices. In the end, the company pulled out of the IPO after it failed to convince investors that it was worthy of the $47 billion valuation. 

12. Future Of Work: The Top 10 Soft Skills You Need To Succeed

This year at Allwork.Space, we made the strategic decision to cover more news about the future of work. As robots continue to replace some human jobs, we learned that it’s important that professionals work on their “human skills” in order to remain competitive, given that in the future, companies will see greater collaboration between humans and machines. If we will be working alongside machines, then it’s only natural for us to focus on developing skills that robots are not able to, including ‘learnability’ to adapt to new demands, cognitive flexibility, creativity, and complex problem-solving.

11. Regus Steps Up ‘Spaces’ Brand as WeWork Valuation Soars, Again

An older, yet still relevant article. Published in 2016, right after WeWork’s valuation reached $16 billion, back then Regus was stepping up the footprint of its coworking arm Spaces. Both Regus and Spaces are now part of the International Workplace Group Inc. (IWG Plc). Since then, the growth of Spaces hasn’t slowed down much, and IWG is set on growing the brand even further. While early in the year IWG was examining the idea of selling spaces to recapitalize on its coworking arm, no official deals were announced. 

10. A New Wave Of Shared Workspace: Medical Coworking

Over the last couple of years, the industry has experienced the rise of niche coworking offerings. One such niche is medical coworking, which has become increasingly popular as doctors realize the huge benefits that coworking can offer them, especially considering that the medical field has seen much consolidation of private practices with lots of smaller spaces being integrated with larger health care providers. One can’t deny the benefits of improved efficiency and significant savings from sharing medical resources and space. 

9. Workplace Design: The Best Colors For Innovation, Creativity, and Focus

This highly popular article was originally published in 2016, but we updated it in June of this year. Based on the fact that color can greatly impact and affect our mood, wellbeing, and behaviour, we take a look at how specific colors (blue, red, white, orange, purple, etc.) in the work environment affect not only our mental state, but also our work-related outcomes. What we found out is that colorful workplaces tend to enhance performance more than workplaces with achromatic schemes. Check out our findings and an amazing infographic from our friends over at Quill, here. 

8. INFOGRAPHIC: 5 Elements of an Agile Workspace

Updated with new information and research this July, we look at how agile workplaces empower workers and help organizations optimize their use of space. Agile working has also been shown to improve productivity, collaboration, and engagement, while also reducing costs. There are 5 key elements to creating an effective agile work environment: breakout areas, quiet zones, touchdown areas, resources, and open plan areas. You can dive into how to create each of these areas within your workplace environment here. 

7. Wall Street Journal Confirms What Industry Experts Have Said All Along About WeWork

An older, yet still highly relevant article considering the public fall of WeWork this year. Since 2015, Allwork.Space has questioned WeWork’s valuation and the sustainability of its business model. In hindsight, it appears that we were right. Last year (2018), an opinion piece published in the Wall Street Journal confirmed what Allwork.Space and many industry leaders had been saying for a long time: the coworking giant is overvalued. Andy Kessler, writing in the WSJ, rightly predicted in 2018 that WeWork was among the multibillion-dollar valued companies that was most likely to fail the hardest. Just a quick recap of WeWork’s fall this year: it filed for an IPO, published its S-1 which faced harsh criticism, it postponed the IPO, it removed co-founder Adam Neumann as CEO (who is now under investigation by the SEC and the New York State Attorney’s General Office), it cancelled the IPO, fired thousands of employees and began selling side businesses, and its valuation took a plunge from $47 billion to around $8 billion. 

6. There’s No Such Thing As Too Many Plants (At Home Or The Office)

Does the title even need any extra explaining? Sam Coppard, growth marketer at Candide, a UK-based startup that makes apps for plant lovers, sheds some light on the science behind why having plants indoors is beneficial to our mental and physical state. The good news: wellness is officially in, and plants in the workplace are much more than just another passing aesthetic fad. It might sound too good to be true, but an office full of plants could be the key to a happier, healthier and more productive work life. 

5. 5 Telltale Signs Of A Toxic Workplace

In a world where the office can be a hotel lobby, a mall, or the airport, organizations (including flexible workspace operators) must focus on ways to encourage people to keep returning to their office. People are looking for experiences that add value to their lives, which places high importance on creating human-centric workplace experiences. And even if you have the best design and most unique amenities, if your workplace culture is off, you’re bound to scare people out the door. In this article, we look at 5 telltale signs of a toxic work environment, and what to do about them.

4. Which Generation Are You?

Organizations today can have up to five generations working side by side and they need to find ways to create a workplace environment that speaks to and appeals to all of these generations — which needless to say have different wants and needs from the workplace. In this article, we collated some classic traits and characteristics of the 5 current generations, starting with the early Traditionalists and finishing with the youngest Generation Z, so that organizations can better understand how to create workplaces that cater to them. 

3. Coworking Is The New Normal, And These Stats Prove It 

The new and improved version with recent stats, have you seen it yet? Here’s a quick glimpse: the global market value of flexible workspaces is estimated at $26 billion; the number of coworking spaces is expected to grow at an annual rate of 6% until 2022 in the US; 40% of flexible workspace demand is forecast to come from large companies; coworking space requirements are increasing; and by 2030, the flexible workspace market is expected to represent 30% of U.S. office stock. 

2. How To Address The 7 Dimensions Of Wellness In The Workplace 

There’s no doubt about it, wellness is in and it will stay in for a long time to come. But workplace wellness is also getting a makeover. Rather than companies focusing only on how to improve the physical health of employees, organizations are increasingly finding ways to address other areas of wellbeing. This article examines the 7 dimensions of wellness (social, spiritual, environmental, intellectual, occupational, emotional, and physical) and how they can be addressed in the workplace. 

1. The 7 Best Low-Maintenance Plants For The Workplace 

Now that we know that there’s no such thing as too many plants in the workplace (or at home), let’s look at some of the best low-maintenance plants to have indoors — because let’s face it, not all of us are great with plants, or is it just me? This has been, by far, our most-read article for two years in a row. Check out our top picks for indoor plants here.