From her desk on Sidney's Beacon Avenue, Elizabeth Giles logs into work each day at a coworking space – connecting with colleagues nearly 8,000 miles away in Sydney, Australia.
"My coworkers don't usually come online until 1 p.m. our time, so my hours are kind of all over the place," says the content marketing specialist, joking that lunch meetings are off the table due to the lengthy flight.
For Giles, working for a company whose office hours are at least 18 hours ahead of hers can be a little lonely, not to mention, challenging for productivity.
This is exactly what motivated her to create Remote Workers – Peninsula and Gulf Islands, a Facebook community group. The objective was to build a community of people who work remotely, discuss the best places from which to work on the Peninsula and beyond, make friends and share memes just for fun.
Giles considers the virtual group as her office.
"(Physical) offices 'suck' because you can't choose your people. The Facebook group doesn't - be a good person and we're happy to have you here,” she says.
Beyond the virtual office, Giles was also craving in-person connection in a physical working space with better Wi-Fi.
In searching for the best remote work cafe around Sidney, she finally found what could very well be the brick-and-mortar equivalent of the group she created online.
Smitty’s, the casual dining restaurant franchise attached to Best Western Plus Emerald Isle Hotel, closed during the height of the pandemic. That building is now Eclective, the first physical coworking space in Sidney, priding itself as “your new coworking happy place".
Lauren Poyntz, the driving force behind Eclective, says it took almost three years of planning and rejigging, which involved swapping their initial French bistro idea that would’ve replaced Smitty’s.
“We took a step back from that and had a hard think about this community because we've been here for so long and we've seen such a huge change thinking about space and what the new vision of Sidney means,” said founder Lauren Poyntz. Eclective officially opened on Sept. 9.
That new vision is about the community embracing the arrival of young families and supporting burgeoning businesses, the people who are really going to continue to bring life to Sidney, she says.
The building was a gift from her family, the McKimm’s who had owned it and the hotel since the seventies.
"I thought, maybe there is something here; there was a market here for that. So, we found this kind of square peg into this round hole and that’s when the coworking space was born," she says.
Just like Giles, Poyntz was motivated by the idea of bringing people who share the same experience working from home.
She said it was the connection and the community that really drew her into creating that space.
“Being at home with two young kids, I wasn't the parent I wanted to be because I wasn't totally present, and I wasn't the businessperson that I knew I could be because I was being pulled away,” Poyntz says. “I know I'm not the only one struggling like this, so I wanted to create a physical space where people feel like they belonged, both personally and professionally.”
Together with her brother and co-founder Noah McKimm, Poyntz manages the well-appointed coworking space, accessible to members 24/7.
Since opening, they have had at least 12 regular members who come to work in their private offices, with a forecasted occupancy booked for the next eight months. Not to mention a steady stream of walk-ins and day pass holders.
Most are happy to know, Sidney finally got its own coworking space. The shared feeling of being in a place where other people are focused on their work and where productivity is boosted is what brought all of them to Eclective.
“We used to travel down to Victoria to find a place like this,” says one regular who prefers to remain anonymous due to the nature of his work.
Ria Stroppa, a fee-only financial planner with the Dixon Davis group, divides her week between working from home and at Eclective.
“Sometimes, I find working from home can be a little bit lonely; that’s why I come here at least twice a week. It's relatively close to home too, so it's convenient and just a nice comfortable space to focus on my work,” she says.
Another regular, Glen Doucette, who is stationed in Sidney for a three-month project, says he’s happy to have found the coworking space and that it works out perfectly for him.
“It’s an eight second commute for me because I stay at Best Western Plus that has a door connected to my office here,” he says.
The well-appointed coworking space comes with a kitchen, fitness studio, board rooms, phone booths and a content studio. And the best part, Giles says, is being able to "chat and connect with people over coffee and then everyone just goes back to doing what they're doing".
A perfect remote working community, if ever there was one.
