Having more than one person under one roof can present problems, as anybody who has been in a relationship, shared an apartment, been in a band or travelled with a group for a prolonged time could attest to. So just imagine how many problems sharing a place of work with ten, twenty, fifty or even more than one hundred people could result in. This is why we’ve created the do and do not of coworking, with help from the good folk down at Queens Collective in Melbourne, Australia.

1. The Do and Do
Not of Coworking

2. DO Share Your Idea
Coworking is about much more than a desk, a chair and a wifi connection.
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It’s about the assisted serendipity that comes from sharing a workspace with others and
sharing what you’re working on. Welcoming the insights, collaborating with and
accessing the networks of your coworkers are some of the major benefits of coworking.

3. DON’T Protect Your Idea For Dear Life
As indicated in the previous slide, the benefits of coworking come from the collective
knowledge, networks and ideas of the community. If you want to protect your idea from
prying eyes and ears, then perhaps you are better suited in a private serviced office or
working from home.
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4. DO Enter A Quiet Area If Taking A Long Call
There’s nothing worse than being privy to a 30-minute sales call of one of your coworkers
while you’re trying to put together a financial model or some other task requiring bucket
loads of cognitive energy. Excuse yourself and take the call in a quiet space such as a
quiet room, a vacant meeting space, a designated call booth or outside if necessary.
This especially applies to smaller spaces with twenty or less coworkers as opposed to
large buzzy spaces that sound almost like the NASDAQ trading floor.
Note: Taking many short calls in succession does not excuse you, in case you were wondering.

5. DON’T Treat Common Areas Like Your Personal Office
This extends to cleaning up after yourself, pumping your own tunes whenever you feel
the sudden need to blast some Skrillex and leaving a mess that extends across three
desk spaces and has people climbing over bags and heaps of paper to get to their
chair. Be cool.
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6. DO Ask Somebody If They Have A Minute Before Interrupting
We’ve all been there. You’re knee deep into putting together a proposal and are now finally well
and truly ‘in the zone’ after an otherwise slow start to the day. Then you’re interrupted and the
cognitive switching penalty, the time taken to re-focus after switching your mindset to something
else, kicks in. The end result? Lost productivity. It can take five to forty-five minutes to refocus.
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While coworkers all enjoy the social and community aspects that coworking brings, don’t forget
the ‘work’ in coworking space.

7. DON’T Disturb People With Headphones On
This is no different to the golden rule that many a weightlifting male subscribes to
in gyms across the world. Don’t hit on girls wearing headphones in the gym. This
same rule applies in coworking spaces. Headphones on means leave me alone.
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8. DO Check Meeting Room Availability Before Use
We hate having to kick people out of a meeting room, regardless of whether or not they’ve
actually booked the space or not. Save us the inconvenience, check room availability and book
it before making yourself comfortable.
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9. DON’T Take Other People’s Food (or Beer.)
So you like making yourself a coffee in the mid afternoon or perhaps reaching for a beer
late in the day, only to find that somebody has taken your stash. Who does that you ask?
Apparently, quite a few people, according to our survey respondents. Respect the
possessions of others and, if you must take something, be sure to replace it asap or make
it up to the person who has been victim to the misdemeanors of your mischievous hands.
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10. DO Clean Up After Yourself
One would assume this a common courtesy but there’s no shortage of coworking spaces out
there with dirty dishes on bench-tops or in sinks and coffee stain mugs on tables. Coworking
spaces would be that much more pleasant if people just cleaned up after themselves. It’s not
hard to put that dish in the dishwasher or take a minute to wash it yourself. Show the space the
same respect you’d show your own home, after all, you probably spend more time in the space
than you do at home anyway!
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11. DON’T Leave Dirty Dishes in the Sink
Pretty self-explanatory really.
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12. DO Ask Others If and How You Can Help
Me, me, me! While it’s easy to get caught up in your project and pitch it to no
end, show an interest and ask people what they’re working on every now and
again.
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If you can add some value or extend an introduction to a valuable third party,
offer it. It often comes back in droves. #goodkarma

13. DON’T Pitch Your Tent in Meeting Rooms
Whether you love them or hate them, meetings are a necessary evil when it
comes to business.
Sure, this writer has thoughts on the quality and number of meetings held in
the corporate world being way beyond excessive, but in many cases, they can’t
be avoided.
So only spend the time you absolutely need in a meeting room and don’t hang
around debriefing and loitering afterwards. Respect the needs of your
coworkers and if you need a meeting room all around the clock, then maybe
hire one exclusively or use a private team room that many coworking spaces
offer.

14. DO Say Hello To Your Coworkers
Pretty straightforward. While we have a tendency to get super busy (this does
not mean super productive by the way!), taking a minute to show an interest
in your coworkers’ lives, particularly upon your or their arrival in the office
isn’t going to derail your business trajectory and send it spiraling into
obscurity to join Pets.com or Sony’s Walkman.
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15. DON’T Play Offensive Music
We all have different taste so in a space of say, twenty or fifty people, it’s going
to be hard to satisfy everyone’s preferences. Play a mix and don’t play offensive
music unless you’re sure you can get away with it.
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Note: Offensive music extends to Taylor Swift and Nicky Minaj.

16. DO Respect Your Coworkers
Respect their work, time, space and without stating the
blatantly obvious, don’t do anything that may make a
coworker uncomfortable.
Put simply, don’t be a d*ck.
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17. DON’T Bring Offensive Smells
Making a tuna milkshake and then heating it in the microwave? Ain’t nobody
got time for that in a coworking space! Smell can be as disruptive as noise so
think twice before you nuke last night’s curry. As an added side-note, should
you fail to heed this advice and nuke last night’s curry anyway, make sure you
clean the microwave in the event of a food explosion!

18. DO Ask Others For Song Requests and Be
Conscientious of Volume Levels if ‘DJing’
So, the idea of turning up to work and having Armin Van Buuren DJ a 3 hour
trance mega-mix might sound good to some, but the reality is quite different. If
you’ve assumed the role of ‘DJ for the day’ at your coworking space, be
conscientious of people’s taste, the space’s demographics, volume levels (there’s
work to be done) and perhaps try and align the tunes with the time of day.
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Blasting Metallica’s Master of Puppets at 9am might serve as good wake up call,
but it’s hardly going to get people in the right mindset to get their day started.
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Check out this article for some ideas on aligning music with the time of day, work
type and productivity levels.
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19. DON’T Take Catering Reserved For Guests Of External Events
Coworking spaces are a great space to host events of all persuasions. Often,
external parties will rent out coworking spaces to hold meet-ups and talks on
any number of things often associated with the startup ecosystem. Think virtual
reality, lean startup, the internet of things, UX design, coding in Ruby, the
sharing economy and so on.
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Events cost money to promote and run so while you might be hitting an early
evening dip in your PHP coding output, don’t use it as an excuse to steal that
slice of pizza intended for a paying customer of an event. There are over 50,000
7-Elevens in the world, after all.