I tried out Tramshed Tech's £20-a-day co-working space in Cardiff

If you live in a city like Cardiff, it’s likely that you will have seen co-working spaces being advertised as they are far from a new concept. But if you’ve never set foot in one, it’s hard to imagine what it might be like.

There’s more than one reason people come here, as I realised when I spent the day at one of Cardiff’s co-working spaces- Tramshed Tech, in Grangetown, to find out what the state of remote working is like in the capital right now.

There are a variety of co-working spaces across Cardiff and the rest of Wales, that all range in terms of their price and facilities. But Tramshed Tech seemed like a good place to start, as they have a number of sites, including two in Cardiff- including Grangetown and One Central Square, one in Griffin Place, Newport one in Goodsheds, Barry and they are currently finishing off a fifth in Swansea.

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It costs £20 for a day pass, £130 for a part time pass which unlocks 80 hours of access across the spaces, £199 for a full time pass which allows full access for 9am-5pm on Monday to Friday, and you can get an unlimited pass from £250 a month for 24/7 access. All of these passes include other varying levels of benefits. For the latest Welsh news delivered to your inbox sign up to our newsletter

Everyone I spoke to told me that the purpose of the working space is about exposing yourself to new ways of thinking, and connecting with a variety of people and it was refreshing to see that it actually works.

At Tramshed Tech, you can take a call in a pretend telephone box, and enjoy a variety of different work areas and even a podcast studio.

Founder of AI Wales Jaymie Thomas uses the co-working space at Tramshed to give him the chance to hear different perspectives and evolve within his own line of work. He said: "A week or two ago I got to meet the Lithuanian ambassador who had come over for a familiarization visit as it was a knowledge exchange between here and there.

"You get human contact when you go into an office. But in terms of co-working it's about the unpredictability in terms of who is there. And there are lots of different events like the lunch club here, and you just get exposed to new things.

"Last month there was a local cleaning company called Sparkle who did a talk and you think- cleaning company, so what? But when they got into it and their hiring process and the fact they're a CV-last hiring company, so they meet the person before they look at the CV, it's things that challenge your own thinking that you can then apply to your own business.

"And also from a founder's perspective, being based here you've got access to things like grant schemes and support that's available which you can find out on your own if you prefer to wade through websites, but there are people here who have been there and done it and can signpost you. "

Jaymie added: "I think we have all been on that journey of going forced remote, but we are getting back to basics now, and that's what it's about here. Then of course if you want to guarantee concentration and more quiet than you work from home."

The team at Vitrus Tech have also found basing themselves in a co-working space has opened doors they would never have expected. They are set up in a room at the back of the space, which they have definitely made their own.

Co-founder George Bellwood said: "People connect with so many different companies here and that's the number one thing that's amazing. The great thing then is that you find you have projects that align with other companies and end up working with those companies.

Vitrus Tech is one of the businesses which has their own office space in Tramshed, but they still regularly like to get out and hot-desk, speaking to a range of people on the premises.

George added: "It's very easy to go out there and make conversation because there are already a lot of familiar faces which you might already know. Some of use work out there sometimes as because it can be very quiet in here, sometimes its nice to go out and get a bit of noise."

The presence of remote working remains popular in Wales according to a recent breakdown of the characteristics of homeworkers from September, 2022 to January 2022 by the Office for National Statistics, as 58% of workers in Wales were unlikely to travel to work.

I saw this first hand a few weeks ago when I spent 16 hours in the Prince of Wales Wetherspoon, in Cardiff city centre and was shocked by the amount of people working remotely there- I didn’t realise quite how many people were resorting to being in a pub just so they can feel more connected to the outside world, and Eulalee Sandford who works on the front of house of the space noted that the number of remote workers she has seen over the last few years remains "quite steady."

She was certain that co-working is the future when I spoke to her, and when asked what the current trends of people coming through the doors are like, she answered: “In the beginning it was mostly large teams. A lot of the smaller organisations, independent people or freelancers because they had been hit quite hard by the pandemic couldn't really justify coming in.

"But now the bigger teams have scaled up into our bigger buildings and now smaller teams and freelance creatives have started to come in more. We have TV, film, graphic designers which are coming in. "

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Kieran O'Connor, who owns a technology-focused recruitment business and pays for a full-time membership, costing £199 a month, but for him, it’s worth every penny in order to create a boundary between work and life.

He said: "In January I tried the working from home situation but it's not for me long term. I like to get out and meet people, speak to people. It is also more difficult to switch off properly at the end of the day, unless you have a separate outdoor office space for instance where you can physically leave the house if you are working from home.

"It depends on who you are as a person in regards to the kind of conversations you can have. If you don't look up or actively engage with people you can be left alone to focus on your work.

"But me, on the other hand, I like to talk to people and engage to find out what they do. I will speak to anyone that opens themselves up for a conversation."

The idea that you get out what you put in is also something which Sara Doust , who is the innovation project co-ordinator at Tramshed Tech, has seen since working for the business. She said: "It's very much a case of talking to people. If there's something you want to achieve from being here, by speaking to people and finding out what expertise they might have and how that might apply to your business or industry, that's how you can make the most of it.

Passionate about putting creative businesses on a platform, Sara is also confident that allowing businesses to interact through co-working helps to raise the profile of everything Wales has to offer.

She said: "You don't have to work in London to be in creative or tech industries. They are here in Wales, it's just about being able to see them and by letting people talk to each other in the co-working space it means that people can engage and help to fill those gaps.

"I think if Wales itself could become a little circular with how information sharing. I do think we I think everyone and I do think that's why spaces like this is great, because that sharing of information resonates.

"It's about breaking down barriers. Because I do think that like, especially if you look at certain parts of Wales. So you may think that because your neighbour doesn't do it, you don't have access to it so we need to keep talking and sharing the information that is available."

It was definitely thought-provoking, being surrounded by a range of people from different companies. It felt very much as if everyone there holds the same mindset which is to nurture connections and embrace communication in order to discover new ways of working, and it was amazing to hear what being open-minded can lead to in some cases.

Jack Mayles works within the field of digital skills and training, and enjoys the flexible nature of co-working in terms of holding his events, because it has meant he has been able to reach a range of different people who have benefitted from his workshops at The Big Learning Company, which is a sister company to Tramshed.

He said: "With our workshops, anyone can attend- they are free of charge and geared towards people who are wanting to boost their skillset. There are have been some people that have come onto it that have actually been introduced to employers and ended up working with them afterwards which is really great to see."

It makes sense why many companies allow staff to work from home- as studies have found that many people say they are more productive, and happier being remote. But new data has found that remote and hybrid workers often have more chance of experiencing mental health issues.

There have also been some interesting statistics around the trends of people working from home most effectively. According to a survey by the British Business Excellence Awards, over three quarters of women (76%) said they were more productive working from home, compared to 54%, which has been tied in to more efficiently managing a work/life balance.