WORK
SMARTER
SEAT SMARTSCuckooz Nest has all the hallmarks of a trendy
coworking space: light and airy, minimalist
furniture, scatter cushions and Instagram-worthy
houseplants. But there are sounds that immediately
mark it out as a different kind of place: a noise of
babies can be heard over the tapping on keyboards.
It’s one of only a handful of coworking spaces
in the UK that not only provide desks, offices and
meeting rooms, but also childcare onsite. Based
in Farringdon, London, Cuckooz Nest offers 21
nursery places to children from newborns to
two-year-olds, alongside 36 desk spaces.
Despite launching less than a year ago, the
business is already profitable and has a waiting
list, says one of the co-founders, Charlie Rosier. She
launched Cuckooz Nest because she wanted to help
women stay in work. The idea came to her shortly
after she and her business partner Fabienne O’Neill
had started their serviced apartment business
Cuckooz in 2016. Rosier had given birth to her
daughter and wanted to return to work six weeks
later, but could not find suitable childcare, so started
taking her baby to the office. “I didn’t want to give
up my 15-year career for having a child,” she says.
A nursery place at Cuckooz Nest costs between
£10.80 and £20 per hour. In London, the average
full-time nursery place is £6.08 per hour, according
to the Money Advice Service – a total of £305.92 per
week for a child under two. But traditional nurseries
don’t offer a lot of flexibility – parents can either
get a part-time or a full-time place. A full-time
nanny, meanwhile, costs on average £616 per week,
plus taxes and national insurance. But at Cuckooz,
members only pay for the hours they use, rather
than full-term periods as most nurseries require.
For Ilany Oliveira, a mother who runs her own
exporting business, working there has been
life-changing. Before Cuckooz Nest opened its
doors in April 2018, Oliveira was struggling to find
childcare due to waiting lists at local nurseries. She
worked at home with her husband, so it would have
been too disruptive having a nanny, she says. So she
found herself trying to work when her baby slept,
usually between 7pm and 2am. “I was exhausted,”
she recalls. Now she uses Cuckooz Next five days a
week – with her daughter playing just metres away.
There are people who come here from as far
away as Bromley and Peckham. And soon, says
O’Neill, Cuckooz Nest will be expanding to two
new locations – so there’s clearly lots of demand
for childcare in coworking spaces.
That’s not surprising, considering the rapid
growth of self-employment in recent years. In
2017, there were some 4.8 million self-employed4ME task chair
This bold chair designed
by Martin Ballendat
includes an active seating
mechanism, enabling you
to work out core muscles,
such as your pelvic floor.Knoll Life chair
The Life chair is a sleek,
high-tech take on the
traditional office chair.
The meshed seat pan is
shaped to alleviate key
pressure points in the legs.Sissel SitFit cushion
The SitFit cushion helps
build back musculature,
as well as strengthen the
pelvic floor. The ever-
changing shape ensures
core muscles keep moving.Exercise ball
The shifting surface of
an exercise ball is meant
to engage users’ core
abdominal and back
muscles as they strain
to maintain balance.
Chris Stokel-WalkerSTANDING
DESKSPeople with
neck, back or leg
pain can benefit
from alternating
with sitting, says
David Rempel,
a professor of
medicine at the
University of
California. But
benefits of sit-
stand desks
are overhyped,
he adds – and
standing won’t
make you
more active.At 42.3 hours per week, British
office workers labour the longest in
Europe, so your chair is important.
But don’t just think about comfort,
says Stephen Bowden, a chartered
ergonomist at consultancy Morgan
Maxwell: sitting incorrectly can cause
lasting pain. “Musculoskeletal issues
are one of the biggest costs for British
businesses, up there with stress
and depression,” he says. Here are
four office additions that can help.< continuedPHOTOGRAPHY:DAN^ BURN-FORTI.^ILLUSTRATION:^ RAMI^ NEIMI