I was asked to feature in Coworkingpodden, Sweden’s new podcast about co-working by Martin Ericsson, to talk about digital nomads, the gig economy and location-independent work. Co-working has grown immensely in Sweden during the past years, and especially in Stockholm. As a freelancer I often find myself working from different co-working spaces around the city, meeting with people and attending talks and workshops.
Some of the spaces I visit and work from more frequently are Goto 10, GT30 and Alma (where one of my clients are based). I’ve also spent some time working from The Park, Epicenter, Workaround and A House. And during 2018, Google Digitalakademin and Amazon AWS loft were also two favorites, although they were both temporary pop-ups that are now closed. For a more comprehensive list of available co-working spaces in Stockholm I recommend this guide from Invest Stockholm: Find the perfect office or co-working space
When recording the podcast, I met Martin at Scandic Downtown City Camper in Stockholm. It’s actually quite impressive to see how much effort the Scandic hotel chain has put into becoming a go-to work destination for freelancers and remote workers. Many of their hotel lobbies welcome workers with desks and sockets, and they have even come up with the hashtag #lobbyjobba (work in a lobby).
Martin and I spoke about co-working from the digital nomad point of view, discussing how one of co-working’s main attractions is the social network it often comes with, especially when you are new in a city or country. I for one met a lot of people working from different co-working spaces in London when I was new and living in the city. For a remote worker, finding a good office space with great coffee and good wifi is key to be able to work from anywhere, and then getting the social connection with other like-minded people is a great plus. More and more jobs are becoming location-independent today; maybe that’s also one of the reasons why co-working is growing around the world?
The title of the episode is ‘Can we stop with the morning commute?’ I’m a strong advocate of work being able to adjust to our everyday lives, to make the life puzzle better come together. If a co-working space is close by to your house, it means you can skip the one hour commute in the morning and get to work directly. It also means that you are able to pick up your kids or do other needed tasks when it best suits you, without needing to stress in a crammed rush-hour train on your way home from work. To help people find work-life balance is one of the reasons why we founded Svenska Nomader to begin with.
Listen to the episode (in Swedish) here:
