My Life Without Loosecubes
Part 1: Ace in the Hole
On Monday afternoon, I was presented with a challenge: ‘This week, you’re not allowed to come into the office, you can’t use Loosecubes, and you can’t work from home.’ For a moment, I felt lost. How was I going to effectively get my work done this week? What about phone calls and meetings I had previously scheduled? There wasn’t time to waste asking these questions. I needed to find a place to call my office!
For the first stop on my urban adventure, I chose the Ace Hotel. I arrived yesterday in the lobby at around 10am, and it was already slammed. Multiple breakfast meetings were in full swing, and over the light chatter, I could hear the familiar hum of fingers click-clacking off of MacBook keyboards. I knew I was in the right place and quickly found an empty seat at a communal table. Now that I had a ‘desk,’ all I needed was a stable internet connection. As if he was reading my mind, a server appeared out of nowhere and handed me a card with an access code for the hotel’s free wifi. Perfect.
After diving into my e-mails and resisting the urge to order a snack for a few hours, I was convinced I was going to have an awkward interaction that would end with a staff member asking me to leave. But the moment never came. Instead, I wound up staying in the same seat for 8 hours without ever being made to feel unwelcome.
As great as this was for my productivity, I felt somewhat isolated. The conversations between strangers were kept to a minimum and most people seemed glued to their computers. Despite my brief run-ins with a venture capitalist and a grad student in need of iMovie assistance, I missed the collaboration and openness that I’ve witnessed at our Loosecubes locations.
All things considered, my overall experience at Ace Hotel was a positive one, and I could see myself going back on occasion. I recommend it to small teams looking for a place to meet outside of the office or freelancers in between client meetings in need of a place to productively kill time.
