The pandemic’s arrival turned spaces like WeWork into ghost towns. Now people are lining up for low-commitment offices, and providers are working to sustain that trend.

新冠大流行突如其来，把WeWork等共享办公空间变成了鬼城。而现在，人们对低租金办公室趋之若鹜。

The demand for WeWork at the Salesforce Tower is indicative of how start-ups have begun returning to offices around the Bay Area. Instead of going to traditional offices, they are opting for flexible co-working spaces, where they can sign short leases or drop in to common space as necessary. Those co-working spaces are now bursting at the seams.

WeWork销售团队大厦（Salesforce Tower）的需求表明创业公司开始返回湾区的办公室。他们不去传统办公室，而是选择灵活的共享办公空间，从而可以签订短期租赁协议，或者在必要时选择普通空间。那些共享办公空间现在都拥挤不堪。

The long-awaited return to office is coinciding with a start-up environment that is showing signs of faltering, after two years of free-flowing venture capital cash and soaring valuations. Tech stocks have sunk, interest rates have risen and geopolitical unrest has contributed to a general feeling of uncertainty.

经过两年的风险资本自由流动和估值提升，初创企业的环境显露出衰退的迹象，而期待已久的回归办公室正顺应了这一趋势。技术公司股票下跌、利率上升、地缘政治动荡都造成了普通的不确定性感受。

In uncertain times — as start-ups undergo tremendous growth, with the knowledge that the funding spigot may yet turn off — short-term leases are more appealing than ever. Start-ups are flocking to spaces like WeWork, the national chain, as well as smaller co-working companies with more elaborate designs like the San Francisco-based Canopy and the New York-based Industrious.

由于初创公司经历了迅猛增长，而且认为融资渠道还未枯竭，所以不确定性时期短期租赁比以往更有吸引力。初创公司蜂拥至诸如WeWork国家级连锁门店等空间，以及像位于旧金山的Canopy和纽约的Industrious等拥有设计装修更好的小型共享公司。

But for many co-working spaces, especially during the pandemic, the short-term-lease models that appeal to start-ups can sometimes present risks.

但是对许多共享工作空间而言，初创公司所青睐的短租模式有时可能会面临风险，疫情期间尤其如此。

Other co-working spaces had been moving toward a revenue-sharing model since before the pandemic. That includes independent spaces like the Port Workspaces, with two locations in Oakland, Calif., and Blankspaces, with several locations in Southern California. Chains like Industrious and Common Desk, the latter of which agreed to be acquired by WeWork this year, have also adopted revenue-sharing structures.

自从疫情暴发以前，其它一些共享办公空间已经开始采取利润分成的模式。这些包括Port Workspaces，她在奥克兰和加州有两个地址，还有Blankspaces，她在南加州有几个地址。连锁办公空间如Industrious和Common Desk（后者今年同意被WeWork收购），也采取了利润分成的模式。

WeWork itself, perhaps the most infamous co-working company, took a different approach: Last fall, the company went public, two years after its aborted initial public offering.

WeWork作为一家名不经传的共享空间公司，采取了不同的策略：去年秋天，公司在放弃首次公开招股后公开上市。

Last Thursday, WeWork reported a $435 million loss in the first three months of 2022. The company said 501,000 members signed up in the first quarter, which is over 100,000 more than in the same period last year, but still lower than before the pandemic.

上周四，WeWork报告2022年前三月亏损4.35亿美元。该公司称，第一季度有50.1万会员签约，比去掉同期增长了10万多人，但是还是低于疫情前的水平。

The Bay Area’s initial shelter-in-place order, in March 2020, meant that many WeWork members stopped coming in, the company said. The building stayed open for essential businesses, but attendance dropped and some companies consolidated their WeWork memberships.

该公司称，2020年3月湾区下达就地避难的命令，意味着许多WeWork会员停止进入。整栋楼为开展民生业务开放，但是利用率下降，而且一些公司合并了他们的WeWork会员资格。

But in a tight tech labor market, the return-to-office plan can be a make-or-break factor for prospective employees. And not everyone is excited to get back to a cubicle.

但是在紧张的技术劳动力市场中，回归办公室计划可能会成为未来员工孤注一掷的因素。并不是所有的人乐于回到小隔间里。

“Some people I’ve spoken to are itching to get back in the office, but I’m getting a lot of responses saying they won’t entertain an offer without a full remote option,” said Abigail Lovegrove, a recruiter for the Collective Search, a recruitment firm, who works out of the Salesforce Tower WeWork.

“虽然我谈到的许多人踯躅于回到办公室，但是我们收到了许多反馈，称他们对不能远程工作的机会感兴趣，”招聘公司Collective Search 的招聘者阿比盖尔·拉乌格罗（Abigail Lovegrove）说。这家公司没有在WeWork的Salesforce Tower中心办公。

After the optimistic return in the fall, daily visitor numbers took a hit in December and January as the typical holiday exodus combined with the surge of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus, WeWork said.

WeWork称，秋季里数据乐观反弹后，12月和1月日到访数据到达顶峰，这是由于假期大逃离和奥米克戎变种肆虐共同作用的结果。

By February, as San Francisco ended its masking requirement for most indoor spaces, members were starting to return.

到了二月，随着旧金山结束大部分室内空间的佩戴口罩的命令，各会员开始回归。

For some companies, recreating a prepandemic office environment is the goal. Merge, now with around 40 employees in San Francisco and New York locations, expects employees to come into the office four or five days a week. After the official workday wraps up, they serve a communal “family dinner” in WeWork’s common space.

重新创造疫情前的办公环境是一些公司的目标。Merge目前在旧金山和纽约拥有大约40名员工，这家公司希望员工每周中有四至五天来办公室办公。在官方工作日结束后，他们在WeWork的共享空间里提供公共的“家庭餐”。

Mr. Feig acknowledged that his company’s insistence on working in person limited the workers it was able to recruit.

飞格先生认为，他的公司坚持线下办公，对招聘员工起到了限制作用。

In the early stages of hiring, “you’re going to have some candidates where, like, ‘That’s a no for me — I’m not into it,’” he said. “But once you kind of knock off that 20, 30 percent who’s not into it, you get a 70 percent of candidates who are really excited about the opportunity.”

在招聘的早期，“你将碰到许多应聘者表示‘那份工作不适合我——我对它不感兴趣’，”他说。“但是，一旦你去除掉那些20%到30%的不感兴趣的人，那么你会发现对工作机会非常感兴趣的人达到70%。”

Mr. Feig said he hoped to expand the company to 80 or 100 employees by the end of the year. He intends to keep the company in co-working spaces, at least in part.

飞格称，他希望在今年底前将公司员工扩充至80到100人的规模。他希望公司保留共享空间业务，至少部分保留。

Merge’s vice president of marketing, Nick Kephart, said the ideal plan would be a mix. “The current plan,” he said, “would be some mix of: in some cities, where we have enough scale, to start having our own private office space; in some cities, stick with WeWork; and in other cities, we may actually open up new offices.” Merge公司市场营销副总尼克·坷法特（Nick Kephart）称理解计划将涉及一系列策略组合。“目前的计划，”他说，“将是在一些业务已成规模的城市收购自己的办公空间；一些城市继续使用WeWork的办公空间，而在其它一些城市我们可能要开立新的办公室，这是一系列策略组合。”