1628 Ltd. helps women remain energized with its coworking space and programs
Selfcare is top of mind for many of us, but one surprising way to take care of your mental health isn’t related to time away from work—it’s changing where you work.
Many of us are sharing their office with the playroom or a storage area. It also can be hard for people—particularly women—to separate themselves from what needs to be done at home. It’s difficult to get work tasks completed when you know the dishwasher needs to be emptied. This is just one factor that has led to increased feelings of burnout, with 46% of women reporting feeling drained, according to a study by Future Forum that was released in March.
“There’s definitely more and more research that is saying having some sort of boundaries, at least for part of the time, is really good, especially for women,” says Tamara Schwarting, founder and CEO of 1628 Ltd., a coworking space located at 11 Garfield Place downtown. 1628 Ltd. helps people get out of their homes and into a more productive working environment.
“We have different memberships where people can come and, on a regular basis, use our facility. We have other individuals who will use our facility for business meetings, whether they’re trying to land contracts or meet with key business partners. And then we also have individuals that will just come in periodically and purchase a day pass,” she says. People can also have a private office at 1628 Ltd. for when they want a space available 24/7.
In addition to helping workers gets away from the stressors of home, 1628 Ltd. also endeavors to provide a stress-reducing space. The walls are filled with art because, “We believe people do their best work when they’re surrounded by inspiring images and art,” says Schwarting. If you arrive before 10 a.m., you can order food through 1628 Ltd.’s lunch provider and have it delivered to your desk. There’s also high-speed Wi-Fi, shipping services and individuals who can help connect you to resources in the community.
Another resource provided by 1628 Ltd. is the Empowering Women program. “We provide supplemental programming, at no cost, for women in business, whether or not they’re operating their own business or they’re looking to upskill themselves in a corporate job,” says Schwarting.
“When we launched Women Empowered in January of 2020, obviously we had no understanding of what was coming,” says Colleen O’Connor, program manager of Women Empowered. “We were able to pivot very quickly to putting all of our workshops online. We definitely felt the surge of interest in remaining connected with women in business and creating those B2B connections to help their businesses thrive during a time that was unsure.”
Since the program launched, 1628 Ltd. has hosted more than 60 events on topics like healthy boundaries, burnout, marketing and cybersecurity. Today, many of these programs are in-person or hybrid.
“Those are some of the things that we do to reduce the anxiety, reduce that burnout feeling, by saying, ‘Hey, you’re not alone and we can share this information with you because we don’t view it as competition,’” says Schwarting.