Live. Work. Play.

When you sit back and reflect, the connections between where we live, work, and play are blending together, almost to the point of becoming too difficult to separate. In this post, we want to explain to recruiters and job seekers alike how jobs tie us to the community and vice versa.

The Starbucks Anecdote

Just about anywhere you go, it’s hard to escape references to big brands like Starbucks. While we apologize in advance, we must absolutely consider this local hub belonging to a global brand as an example of where people live, work, and play. Go to Starbucks and sit there for several hours of people-watching. You’ll see the following insights at work.

People Can Work From Anywhere

If we’re being honest, our blog writer sits in Starbucks for the sake of research. You see the business owners, the public employees, the private sector workers, the unemployed, the elderly, the youngsters, the college students, and the freelancers all moving through this cafe. You see tons of people passing through the drive-through. Together, Starbucks people are a metaphor for what people crave. We want to go to where the baristas remember our face and our favorite drink. We want to turn around and recognize familiar faces (people from the gym, people from work, and people from church). Starbucks also helps us to wake up when we have to be at an early work meeting and to help us stay awake on a long drive home from a rock concert. With enough caffeine, we can get through anything, or we tell ourselves that to justify the coffee purchase.

People Form Business Contacts Anywhere

The coffee shop culture also illustrates how people form important business and personal contacts everywhere and then stay connected on social media. This leads to a blurring of lines that people have in social relationships. For example, you have a co-worker as a Facebook friend if you trust her, and you feel that you should wish her a happy birthday even on the weekend. If she invites you to the party, you will probably go, but it depends on how many other friends will be there. In the past, people used to maintain greater separation between their work lives and their home lives, but now their co-workers are integrated into most aspects of their lives.

People Spend Time With Like-Minded People and Then Form New Interests

For employers, this is a big one! When coffee lovers go to Starbucks, they’re surrounded by other coffee lovers. While their shared interests may be the impetus that brings them in, they begin to form other kinds of social relationships. For example, you see a gym friend, Judy, at Starbucks and she introduces you to her friend Tom with an adorable Pug. You talk about the irritable stomach of your chihuahua. It just so happens that Tom is a dog groomer. He gives you his card. Meanwhile, Judy says that her mother just lost her job, and you encourage Judy’s mother to apply for the customer service opening at your company. When you speak to people in social situations, you learn about job opportunities that directly or indirectly relate to your skills, but you can also share opportunities with those in your network. If you want to follow up on a job lead, you can get a person’s Facebook or LinkedIn information and get in contact again soon.

The Takeaway

What we love about live, work, and play concepts is that job seekers will choose a community where they can do all three. If they associate their employer’s culture with strong ties to their community, they will be likely to stay for a longer tenure. If employees have a hard time finding a sense of belonging in the community where they live, then they will need to move somewhere else to find it. In the end, employers lose when they cannot keep employees tied to the workplace culture or to local opportunities to play. Some employers address this by offering good employees the opportunity to move away and telecommute, but they will eventually separate after they find stronger social connections in their new community.