Arrr-guably Similar: How Coworking Channels The Rebel Spirit Of Pirates

• Choosing life at sea gave pirates the freedom to do something different, much like the coworking model provides an alternative working lifestyle between the office and working from home.
• Pirate communities celebrated marginalized individuals and, like coworking, established values of respect, fairness, and equity.
• For pirates, the community spirit ensured human survival. Likewise, a coworking space will sink or swim depending on the strength of its community.

Picture the notorious Captain Kidd and the infamous Blackbeard. While pirates have historically been synonymous with criminality (the word “piracy” literally means to rob something), their maritime exploits are above all an unconventional way of life — an ethos that surprisingly resonates powerfully with the principles of coworking.

What do pirates and coworkers have in common? Alex Barker, co-author of “How to be more Pirate,” brought the comparison to open last year’s GCUC UK. Let’s explore the similarities in more depth. 

Origins of rebel spirits

In Britain, a period of social instability led to the “Golden Age” of piracy  from about 1650 to 1720. 

“Smaller farmers were forced off the land by ruthless landowners and smaller tradesmen were challenged by larger businesses. These displaced people flocked to urban areas looking for work or poor relief,” according to Royal Museums Greenwich. 

At that time, cities were besieged by extreme overcrowding and unemployment. “Piracy tempted poor seamen because it offered them the chance to take more control of their lives.” Pirates challenged traditional authority and social structure — choosing life at sea became much more appealing than living in severe poverty. 

The emergence of coworking around 2005 provided an alternative lifestyle, too. Rather than working in an office (where “freedom and the ability to control our own lives” is lost) or working from home (where a lack of community can increase feelings of loneliness), coworking exists to give people something different. It created “a new kind of work,” explains Brad Neuberg, the self-proclaimed founder of coworking.

Neuberg invited “free spirits” to first work together at the Spiral Muse mission in San Francisco. It’s not a dissimilar label to when French historian Hubert Deschamps described pirates as “a free people, detached from other human societies.” In both cases, this shared experience of being different brought people together to form communities unlike any other. 

Inclusivity rules

Coworking celebrates community by ensuring that everyone in the workspace is treated equitably. The well-respected community manager is often at the helm of a workspace community and works tirelessly to bring people together and establish values of fairness across the community. 

A pirate ship didn’t operate under a hierarchy either. Shipmates selected a Captain who appeared “capable of commanding and navigating the ship,” but they were given no more rights than a crewmember (apart from during battles). A fair voting system established everyday decision-making amongst shipmates. 

Breaking down traditional hierarchies creates more inclusive environments, and pirates were surprisingly ahead of their times in terms of diversity, equity, and inclusivity. It was because “pirates existed in the shadows, in the margins of society — overthrowing societal conventions and creating their own counterculture,” according to The Guardian. 

There were “queer pirates, pirates of colour, and female pirates,” the latter famously including Mary Read and Anne Bonny. At one point aboard Blackbeard’s ship, six out of ten crew members were black. In her opening speech at GCUC UK, Barker explains how same-sex marriage was accepted and celebrated aboard pirate ships.

Meanwhile, coworking “originates from hospitality, meaning that coworking spaces are already aligned with base values like being welcoming and inclusive,” says Jeannine van der Linden. The flexible nature of coworking is accessible for marginalised groups because it gives individuals freedom of choice, whilst supporting hybrid lifestyles. 

Living the Coworking Pirate Code

Van der Linden said, “When we allow marginalised members to step into our coworking spaces and be centred there, we give our spaces a better chance of survival.” It’s the communal essence of coworking that enables the movement to thrive.

Human survival during the pirate era equally relied on the crew’s collaborative spirit. Shipmates had to be fit enough to fight enemy ships, guided by their Captain, and their food supplied by cooks and crew members. Pirates spent long periods together, whilst travelling at sea, and formed close-knit communities. The Pirate Code “was the crucial document that enabled many pirate crews to stay organized and operational.” 

Likewise, many workspaces operate under a manifesto — a framework that encourages collaboration over competition and prioritizes community. Some coworking spaces are mission-led under a specific guiding principle that sets the space apart from others, defined by the community it serves or the location it’s situated in, for instance. 

A coworking manifesto establishes that coworkers can view one another as friends, beyond the formalities of a professional work environment. Like pirates, coworkers spend a great deal of time together in their work environment (facilitated by a thriving social calendar of events). These relationships might even go further to support one another in personal circumstances, which defines the meaning of community. 

Pirates too “lived in their own civil society that cared for and protected their own as well as others,” details Daphne Geanacopoulos. “Quite often a pirate travelled thousands of miles to return the personal belongings and booty of a deceased pirate” to their family, which indicates the level of care that the pirate community had for each other. 

Not all pirates are coworkers

But this is where the similarities end. Pirates were criminals, after all — they operated on a basis of fear and used intimidating tactics to seize booty. Piracy wasn’t a long-term occupation either, lasting an average of two years before pirates were caught or retired. The “Golden Age” of piracy fizzled out in the 1720s as a result of war and stronger governments that tightened laws around piracy.  

Of course, the coworking movement has only strengthened in the last few years with the pandemic and shift in hybrid working practices supporting the demand for shared workspaces, community, and social interaction. Coworking has grown dramatically from a different way of working into a mainstream and much-in-demand business model.