“According to a study by Engel & Völkers, almost every second German with a desk job can now imagine working regularly in a coworking space. This is even more so the younger, more southern and with children.”
The end of the compulsory home office, as in Germany, has not led to the vast majority returning to their desks at company headquarters. Only 54.6 per cent of Germans with office jobs currently work exclusively or predominantly at the company headquarters. This is the result of a recent GfK survey commissioned by Engel & Völkers Work Edition, a provider of coworking spaces.
Every fifth person now works both on the move and in the office. At 21.7 percent, slightly more work predominantly or even exclusively on the move, for example in a home office, at a second home or in a coworking space. The latter is becoming more and more popular: according to the study, 47.1 percent of office workers can imagine doing their job regularly in a coworking space.
Covid-19 has thus changed work in offices significantly and sustainably. “Of the respondents who used to work mainly or exclusively in the office, only about two-thirds now do so according to the survey,” says Danielle Schindler, Managing Director of Engel & Völkers Work Edition.
Above all, 30 to 49-year-olds now want to work predominantly or exclusively on the move – more than one in four say so. And the trend is particularly pronounced in the German state of Bavaria, where almost every third respondent with an office job works predominantly in flexible locations.
Those who have been working mobile for longer now want more coworking
For the authors of the study, one conclusion is that the coworking trend has reached the breadth of the population. “The willingness to work in a coworking space runs through all occupational groups – whether freelancer, employee or civil servant,” Danielle Schindler notes. Of the employees with office jobs surveyed, 47.3 percent could imagine working in a coworking space on a regular basis; among civil servants, the figure is 37.6 percent.
Not surprisingly, younger people aged 18 to 29 are particularly interested in coworking (66.5 percent), while interest decreases with age. At the same time, more households with children want to cowork (55.6 percent) than those without children (40.5 percent).
And those who were already mobile before the pandemic now also have a higher affinity for regularly using a coworking space. “It is also a question of personality whether one wants to get involved in new working environments or not,” says the managing director of Engel & Völkers Work Edition. The company currently operates a location in Hamburg. In addition to private offices, flexible wor
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