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Rise of remote work from a ‘third place’

27 April 2023

health safety and wellbeingmember stories

With post-pandemic hybrid work here to stay, Melbourne Chamber member Swinburne University of Technology has identified a ‘2023-defining trend’ beyond working from home.

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In a promising trend for hospitality venues that may be missing patronage from office workers, Swinburne finds workers are increasingly seeking out a ‘third place’ to work from.

While already popular with freelancers, remote and hybrid workers are also increasingly working from cafes, followed by pubs, libraries, parks and coworking spaces.

Recent findings from OpenTable revealed that almost half of remote workers now spend time each week working from cafes or other third places. The trend is particularly popular with Gen Z workers, with 10 per cent saying third places are now their preferred place to work.

The Swinburne research, partnering with Third-Place.org, investigated the appeal of working from alternative locations, what they are used for and how workers behave there.

Findings included:

  • On average, people who work in third places will typically do so two to three times a week, staying anywhere between 15 minutes and four hours and spending up to $30 each visit.
  • The worker will typically go alone or in small groups of two or three people.
  • The most common work tasks are deep individual work, creative thinking/work, reading, administration tasks, paperwork, emails, small meetings and informal phone calls.
  • Key attracting factors included feeling welcome, venue reviews and wi-fi and power sockets.
  • The top three benefits to working in a third place were mental reset, community and social connection, and great food and coffee.
  • Eighty-six per cent of respondents attributed working from a third place to positively contributing to their wellbeing.
  • The chance of continuing to use a third place for work in the future was 98 per cent.

Not all work tasks were suitable for third places, such as working on something of a confidential nature (or with security or privacy risks), longer or larger meetings and tasks that require a bigger screen or other specialist equipment.

Swinburne Innovation Fellow Associate and lead researcher Professor John Hopkins said: “We identified a range of different third place users.

“Venues looking to attract these types of workers might have signage welcoming people to work within, provide a dedicated working space, advertise the wi-fi password or offer special bundles.”

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