We are all familiar about the depredation the novel virus has caused to the business world. Each and every sector, every market whether established or new have been mercilessly stymied by this vicious pandemic. Social distancing and lock down have completely ceased human activities whose direct impact is seen in the co-working industry. Since the work from home concept is exercised as a full-fledged practise, the enterprises offering shared office spaces have experienced a drastic fall in their normal up and running. This lack of activity is not only bringing their endeavours at a standstill but has created room for great economic loss.

As this domain is a recently discovered and excessively flourishing one, many new entrants have tried their hands and luck in this business. Now, at this time where social distancing is enforced to maintain for safety, the numbers of people favouring the system of sharing work space are declining at a frantic space.

The clients have already stopped utilizing the space and are only to resume once things fall in the right place and the danger of this contagious spreading from person to person is brought to a final conclusion. But this condition have kept the go-getters at great dilemma, they are not able to let go their office space or shut down the established business with the hope that once things are normal their clients will reinstitute their space again. With this ray of hope, these startups are investing money without any profit in return.

They are at a regular basis paying rents for their offices, releasing salaries to employees who they are not sure about if they will return to work when things witness normalcy.

This course of action and practise are expected to continue for a while till the lockdown is lifted which very much seem to not happen any soon.

Apart from these some other factor to worry about is to get surety about the clients, as many of them are freelancers, entrepreneurs, start-ups and small teams their condition post the lockdown do not seem to be quite sanguine and they too will require time to gain stability in the market.

Finding Hope in the Darkness
Despite of the unpredictable set of circumstances we all have fallen prey to, it is observed that the innovative minds are seeking opportunities to make the best of the worst. The fact is true that coworking space is bestowed will a number of advantageous. It being a go to place for every freelance and startup workers, assure that may be a little lately but things are to take turn in the positive direction.

With a slowdown in the economy over the last several months and the current situation, clients are now asking for more flexible plans. Earlier, the average booking period for a space used to be around three months, which has now changed to a few hours. - Yatin Thakur, founder of Co-WorkIn

The few things coworking space owners can keep a tab on are making sufficient arrangement to keep the social distancing practice alive in order to maintain good and hygienic environment or all. They need to persuade the customer that as an office space provider they have been taking full responsibility of proper sanitation, catering, shifts, and maintain a strict protocol.

It is quite surprising to see but there are coworking firms who in this even in this lockdown situation are endeavouring hard to be of some help to their clients. Initiators now have ample time to think of some out-of the box idea to get themselves back on the track post the lockdown.

• A coworking area becomes a place to incubate ideas and nurture talent

• A surveys says that India has over 300 coworking spaces with over 720 centres and a total area of 15 Mn sqft

• About 90 per cent of employees working in shared offices feel more confident in their work

• The estimated number of coworking users will rise to 3.8 million by 2020 and 5.1 million by 2022.

• 50 per cent of large companies will have some form of shared office space by 2020

• Access to amenities to productively support work from home has made coworking space more preferable amidst Covid-19 crisis.