Co-working: Clean, Cool, Quiet, and Connected!

Another Way for week of July 2, 2021

Co-working: Clean, Cool, Quiet, and Connected!

I got to go back and work in an office the other day. I guess you could call it “Take your old self to work day.”

It was kind of fun. A woman who rents space in what is frequently called a co-working place, offered to let me use her space because she would be out of town. I needed to attend a church-related Zoom meeting for about two and a half hours. Long committee meetings like that using our own internet connection at our home in the country can put us over our monthly limit of gigabytes—and then we have to pay extra. So, she made arrangements for me to get into her co-working space.

It was super nice: clean, cool (on a 90-degree day), quiet, with places to get coffee (I brought my own) and an awesome internet connection that never once told me that my hook-up was “unstable.” I had a large conference room all to myself and the time flew by.

Before I retired in 2019, I was lucky to have a job where I enjoyed my work immensely. I also liked dressing nice and driving off to work.

I had to think of my mother. Her dream job when she was a teen was to work as a secretary in an office. After high school graduation, she went to a business school, learned shorthand and typing, and then got a job in a downtown office in a semi-large city near where she lived.

Our three daughters all work in an office setting—especially before covid. My husband always told our daughters to “work hard in school so you don’t have to work in a factory like me.” So I guess they took his advice and I find it interesting that none of them went into fields like teaching or healthcare.

During the bleakest days of covid, they worked mainly from their homes and managed to juggle lots of tasks like helping little ones with school work (also online), making meals, and getting their office work done, sometimes after normal work hours.

I’m currently reliving some of my more than 43 years working in an office. How and why? I’m working on a memoir from those years about our adventures and misadventures producing media messages on behalf of the Mennonite churches. This is writing I need to do even if no one ever buys the book or reads it. My work as a writer is often processing things—so I guess you could say I’m reliving the ups and downs of those years. I have mostly great memories of work that I felt called to. When I was a teen, I wrote down that my dream job would be working as a Christian writer. That is mostly what I was able to do.

This July 4^th holiday* I’ve been reflecting (and processing) how fortunate I am to be alive, still of decent mind (!), and thankful to live in relative freedom with a wide array of opportunities—for those who take advantage of them. Right now, our country and many others are suffering from an upended healthcare system especially for the elderly and all those in long-term nursing care. Some of the suffering comes from lack of trained healthcare workers—those who’ve had to quit their jobs because of illness and taking care of their own families. Some have found that drawing unemployment brings in more household money than working. I will write more about the crisis in caring for the elderly in weeks to come, including an update on my own mom.

Meanwhile, I hope you have a good holiday weekend, and time to pause and be thankful for your many blessings.

For more information on the Broadway Co-working space visit broadwaycoworking.net.

Stories or comments? Send to anotherwaymedia@yahoo.com or Another Way Media, P.O. Box 363, Singers Glen, VA 22834.

If you want to keep up with news and developments in writing/publishing the memoir I mentioned above, check here.

Another Way is a column by Melodie Davis, in syndication since 1987. She is the author of nine books. Another Way columns are posted at FindingHarmonyBlog.com a week after newspaper publication.  

* I always post my columns, as stated in the note above, a week after newspapers have had time to publish it.