Hybrid work has reshaped how Angelenos spend their days. At the Los Angeles Athletic Club, some members now remain for up to 10 hours, moving from laptops to workouts, meals and evening events without ever leaving the building.
For some Los Angeles Athletic Club members, a visit that begins with a workout has evolved into something far more extensive.
“There’s members who spend more time here than we do,” club director Najeeb Shamsid-Deen said. “There’s members who spend ten hours here.”
The downtown private club says the trend accelerated as hybrid and remote work became a lasting part of everyday life after the pandemic.
Shamsid-Deen said members who once worked from home throughout the day increasingly began looking for another setting—one that offered a change of scenery without sacrificing the flexibility of remote work.
“Maybe you don’t want to sit at your dining room table all day,” he said. Members began bringing their laptops to sofas and common areas, eventually leading the club to create dedicated coworking space. More than half of its newest members now work hybrid or flexible schedules, according to Shamsid-Deen.
For member Caroline Valmont, the arrangement can blur the line between professional responsibilities and the rest of the day.
“It coalesces the work and the social part,” she said. Valmont has worked remotely and held meetings at the club, where a break from the laptop might involve picking up a coffee—or taking a swim—before returning to work.
Longtime member Wellington Phillips described an even more complete daily routine: arriving for a morning workout, working for several hours, taking a class, using the sauna or steam room, eating lunch, working again and staying into the evening for trivia, karaoke or another event.
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“So you spent your whole day under one roof,” he said.
That seamless movement between work, fitness and social life is among the features member Patrick Rutnam finds most distinctive about the club.
Like Los Angeles itself, he said, the building contains several distinct “energies” layered together: athletic facilities, quieter rooms with a library-like feel, workspaces and areas designed for socializing.
The convenience carries a significant cost. Membership runs about $245 a month, along with a joining fee of just under $1,000, according to Shamsid-Deen. The club has more than 4,500 members, including roughly 3,000 considered active regular users.
Still, members interviewed for the story repeatedly emphasized something less tangible than the club’s amenities: the comfort of having a place where familiar faces are likely to appear.
“The connection really isn’t the professional side,” Valmont said. “It’s the uniqueness of getting to know somebody and the authenticity of that conversation.”
Shamsid-Deen expressed the idea more directly.
“All of us want to belong to something,” he said. “And I think we check enough boxes that people find a home here.”
For Rutnam, that description is almost literal.
“It’s my second home,” he said. “Sometimes it feels like my first home. It really fills in the gaps of what’s going on in my life.”