Offices, coworking spaces and cafés: how to choose your workspace after relocation

The world stopped living only in offices a long time ago

A bit of reality you can lean on when you’re choosing your work format.

• Surveys show that around 80% of employees prefer a hybrid format, with both an office and the possibility to work outside it.
• The coworking market is growing at double-digit rates. By one estimate, by the end of 2024 the number of coworking spaces worldwide had approached 42,000, and the market volume had already passed 14 billion dollars.
• “Third places” are in the game too: research shows that a significant share of remote workers regularly work from cafés at least once a week.

In other words, you really do have a choice. The question is not “office or nothing” but “which combination of spots fits my tasks and my brain”.

Office: base, people, routine

When it works for you

• Onboarding. New country, new market, new processes. In an office it’s easier to absorb context, “read” the culture and catch things that will never be written down in any document.
• Real people. Colleagues you can quickly check something with, a manager you can actually walk up to, small talk in the kitchen. For life in a new country that’s a plus, not a “oh god, people”.
• Visibility. For some companies “a person in line of sight” still means “a person in priority”. Especially if you’re a new hire after relocation.
• Language practice. If you’re switching the language of your environment (English / Serbian), the office speeds up the warm-up simply because you hear it all day.

When the office is an okay choice for you

• You’ve just moved and want to integrate faster.
• People, language and the feeling of “I belong somewhere” matter to you.
• You genuinely don’t have the conditions for normal work at home.

Coworking: office by subscription

Coworking is not only for freelancers in hoodies, it’s a very workable option for employees too, if you agree on it with your employer.

Pros

• Professional environment. Desks, chairs, rooms for calls, fast internet, tea and coffee. All this without the need to rent an office.
• Flexibility. You can get a fixed desk, a hot desk or a room for your team. Lots of options, especially in big cities.
• Mental “office”. You leave the house, you have a commute “to work” and back, but without corporate turnstiles and access gates.
• No mandatory “office” rules. You choose the space for yourself: quieter, buzzier, with a river view or next to the main square.

Cons

• Price. Especially if the company doesn’t reimburse it. You have to do the math: sometimes coworking ends up costing like half the rent of a room.
• Outside noise and people. In top spaces there are often a lot of calls around you, and if you need pure focus you’ll have to hunt for the quietest corner.
• Bookings. Meeting rooms and call rooms can be taken at the exact time you need.

How to plug coworking into a regular job

• Ask your employer whether part of the “office” budget can be redirected to you as coworking compensation. For the company it’s often easier than keeping empty desks.
• Suggest a hybrid: 2–3 days in the office, 1–2 days in a coworking space near home, one day at home.

Cafés and “third places”: pretty, but not a base

Cafés, libraries, hotel lobbies, anti-cafés — all of that are “third places”. They’re ideal for changing the scenery, but they don’t always work as a permanent office.

When a café is okay

• You’ve got creative tasks and you need some light background noise so your brain doesn’t stagnate.
• You need a couple of quiet hours to finish a text, strategy or presentation.
• You want to get out of the house, but coworking isn’t in the budget.

Risks and limitations

• Connection and confidentiality. Not every café is suitable for a client call or a conversation about colleagues’ salaries.
• Ergonomics. Narrow tables, low chairs, sockets at only one table. Your back and eyes might tolerate a day, but not a month.
• Social contract. You’re still a guest, not a tenant. Sitting there for six hours with a single coffee often just feels awkward.

Overall, it’s better to keep cafés as an add-on to an office or coworking space, not as your only work spot.

How to discuss work format with your employer

The main rule: talk about the format not as “I want a couch and a cat”, but as the conditions under which you bring the most value.

Questions worth asking already at the interview stage

• “What format do you use now: office, hybrid, fully remote?”
• “If it’s hybrid, how many days are usually in the office and how strict is that rule?”
• “Do you have people working from other cities/countries? How do you organize that?”
• “Who decides on the format for a specific role: the manager, HR, or a general policy?”

How to phrase your expectations

Instead of “I only work remotely, I’m not going to the office”, try this:

• “I’ve relocated, I live in area X, I have a decent workspace at home. For focus tasks remote works best for me, and for syncs and onboarding I’m fine coming to the office N times a week. How realistic is that for you?”
• “It’s important for me to be in the office more often during the first couple of months to integrate into the team, and then switch to two office days a week. How flexible are you with that?”

Red and green flags

• Green: the company clearly formulates the rules and still allows reasonable exceptions. “We do 2–3 days in the office, but if someone has relocation/kids/treatment, we discuss it individually.”
• Red: answers like “we’ll figure something out”, “everyone’s fine, they just come in” with zero specifics.

How to find your own corner even with an offline schedule

Even if the job is officially “office-based”, it doesn’t mean you’re doomed to sit at the same desk under the AC forever.

1. Inside the office

• Change your spot. Sometimes it’s enough to move further from the hallway and the shared kitchen. Ask your manager to help you find a quieter place.
• Collect “quiet windows”. If you have 2–3 hours without meetings, book a meeting room for deep work, not just for calls.
• Normalize headphones. Good noise-cancelling headphones are not a luxury, they’re a survival tool in an open-plan office.

2. Around the office

• Find “backup spots” within walking distance: a library, a quiet café, a coworking space with a day pass. That’s your plan B for days when it’s objectively impossible to focus in the office.
• Negotiate one home day. Even in conservative teams you can often get one “focus day” at home if you explain why you need it and how you’ll report on results.

3. Home as a mini-office

Even if your apartment is small, you can set up a kind of “work point”:

• a compact folding table that you set up only for work time
• a separate shelf/box for tech and notebooks
• a start-and-end-of-day ritual: you put away your laptop, light, headphones — the workday is over

It’s not the perfect place that matters, but predictability: it’s easier for your brain to switch into work mode when the context repeats.

Conclusion

After relocation your goal is not “to land in the perfect company” but to build a working system around yourself. The office, coworking space and café each have a different role. The office gives you structure, coworking gives flexibility and an “office without an office”, cafés give you a change of scenery and a bit of creative noise.

A thoughtful dialogue with your employer plus a willingness to experiment with the “spots” around you seriously increases your chances of not burning out and not getting disappointed in relocation.