Is this the new norm? Working from café

[Oneborneverydecade]

I haven't worked in an office for a while but my DH works from home. He's able to be home for meetings but obviously I appreciate some people need to visit clients etc.

I'm between jobs atm and spending too much time (and money) in local cafes. Often someone will start a work video call or telephone call.

I try to ignore and focus on my phone. It's only if it goes on for some time that I start to get frustrated.

Is it rude to dominate the space with a work call? Isn't it frustrating for the other person, trying to hear over the background noise (today it's the Bee Gees, lady is loudly discussing her maternity pay situation)

Anyone tried to get a seat in a café in a student town? Nightmare. I know of one town where one of the chains opened and then closed down and I swear it was because it was full of 'one-coffee students' writing their essays and no-one else could get near.

I've been in cafes that rent tables out to people working. They have to book in advance & pay upfront but it does mean there is a guaranteed income for the cafe owners.
It can be annoying but the cafes are obviously getting something out of it else they wouldn't offer it!

I disagree, people tend to speak much louder on the phone and especially laptop than if they were just talking to someone. Incredibly rude and intrusive

OP, you are quite right, this is another example of performative and entitled behaviour which seems to have become endemic since the lockdown farce

There’s one near me that has a sign up about when people can/‘t use laptops and work from there. First time I’ve seen something like that.

I don’t mind as a cafe user… but I have 2-3 young children with me and I won’t police their behaviour any more heavily than I would otherwise just because there is someone very obviously working next to us.

Ironically I start a new job after half term...in a cafe. So I'll get to experience it from the other side although I've never seen it in this particular cafe.

It's not likely to change is it. Maybe noise cancelling airpods are the answer

I work from home full time and study too, it can be quite isolating and lonely sitting in the same spot in the same house with no company all day while the kids are at school. That's why it's nice to break up the day sometimes and have a change of scene, see and hear other people, and work in a cafe for a couple of hours.

I always take my noise cancelling headphones and would only ever use a table bigger than for 2 if absolutely necessary (notebooks) and lots of other tables free. I always buy at least 2 drinks and make sure I have work to do which is laptop only and no calls or anything. 1 person sitting on their laptop I don't see is any different to 1 person sitting on their phone or reading. I agree it's loud calls that aren't ok however in the costa I go too it's so loud anyway that I don't think it would really bother anyone particularly.

At that costa mon- fri is the busiest time as at least half the people there are working. When I went last Saturday it was so quiet! My local Starbucks is usually about 80% people working on laptops during the week and a much more 'office' atmosphere as not so loud as costa. I think if you took away everyone working there'd be a massive drop in business for these places. I've always found the small locally owned cafes very grateful when I go

Surely that only means they should spend money at roughly the same rate as anyone else then? It's not about what they are doing.
If I'm sitting messing on my phone I can be using there lighting, heating, wifi etc instead of my own while I'm drinking coffee....that's kind of what a cafe is for?

I think working in a cafe on your laptop is fine. But it is incredibly unprofessional to have calls and meetings in a cafe. I have seen so many people on video calls. I'm sure my manager would have something to say if I joined a meeting from a public space.

I would never do a work call or any call in a cafe.

I go outside and sit in my car !

Working from a cafe or coffee shop is the height of toss pottery.

I occasionally see a couple people having a work meeting at a cafe. By the nature of the venue though it's usually quite casual and it hasn't affected the atmosphere. I did see a work interview once which I thought was inappropriate as they might have been talking about quite personal/private things in such a public arena.
Phone calls can be annoying as people tend to raise their voices, but fortunately they are quite brief.

A couple of local cafes here do a 'work from home day pass' which is about £20 and includes lunch and unlimited tea/coffee. Not tried it myself as I have confidential paperwork but seems like a nice idea for the quieter days.

I think working from a cafe is fine. I also think it's perfectly reasonable for cafe owners to apply limits to time spent working if not buying etc (I've seen signs up saying they'll ask you to move on if they need the table, for example) although I suspect a lot of them don't mind as it means there is a customer.

Calls in cafes on the other hand - whether private or work - are completely inappropriate and drive me crazy. Inevitably people talk louder on calls and also, I don't want to hear about whether or not you're going to hire Mary or John and the salary expectations of both.

As someone who works in cafes now and again, I also would never dream of having an issue with other people making normal amounts of noise. The whole reason for going to a cafe is to have a bit of life around you. I like seeing little kids coming in to choose their treat-cake or the group of mums with their newborns chatting.

Yes, and the person on the next table asking us if we could keep our voices down because he was on a zoom call took the biscuit, I didn't and told him that we were talking at a normal volume and it was a public place - he stormed out and the waitress came over and thanked me, they weren't allowed to say anything but he sat there drinking one coffee for 3 hours every day.

It doesn’t bother me if it’s one person on a small table, laptop or papers, typing or reading or watching with headphones or whatever. It’s the one-sided conversations that are annoying. Doesn’t matter whether they’re for work or social: I find it very difficult to filter out a one-sided conversation. Two people sitting next to me, chatting at normal volume - I don’t even notice them. One person having a one-sided conversation? So intrusive and inescapable. I wonder if it’s a left/right brain type of thing.

Where I am they do not allow this which is fantastic. It is a coastal area so lots of people come up for days out etc and it would be infuriating if people were holding up tables working there. My own company wont allow us to take the company laptops outside of our homes or offices due to gdpr reasons. I have no idea why other companies do not have this rule.

I used to be a sales rep. Cafes and coffee places, hotel lobbies were where we had to have meetings as we didn't live or work near our head office to be able to have our regular catch ups.

We never sat nursing one cup of coffee. coffee shops did very well out of us. Several drinks, crisps and snacks.

It's always one person and their laptop taking up a four person table (usually the one with the comfy chairs) and they stay for hours. Very frustrating.

I find this too. A one sided conversation really cuts through and I can't filter it out. I think because it's slightly louder and you don't get the natural flow of a two people conversation.
I also find the obvious disappointment from the person working, that someone is taking the seat next to them, annoying. As if you are invading their space. It's the look, possibly a small sigh, and then continously looking up through their phone conversation as if they are struggling to hear the person on the other side due to our (normal chat volume) conversation. Which automatically makes me talk quieter but then feel a bit annoyed as I think it's a cafe, not a bloody quiet work place. If you want to work in silence, don't work from a cafe.

Anyway, not a huge deal but it does put me off.

DS is currently working from a café using space he’s paid for. He says it’s great being in an environment where everyone is working but nobody’s chatting to each other so it’s easy to focus.

That feels like a more acceptable arrangement than people simply setting up office in a café where there are also social customers.

I don’t blame cafés for trying to recoup some of the losses of the pandemic, all day customers must be a bit of a godsend, but I do regret how it changes the vibe.

Have to admit I wouldn’t have had the concentrations skills to do it myself so I kind of admire the way people can just plant themselves anywhere and work.

If cafes didn't want people working in them, they'd not allow it. As they do, they clearly make a fair bit of money from it.

Around here, it's actively encouraged and people with laptops make up the majority of their business during the off-season and during the week. You can even book a table for x hours for a flat rate, and it includes unlimited tea/filter coffee in that time, and you can plug stuff in and use their WiFi too.

I’ve seen plenty of cafes advertising on Facebook that they welcome homeworkers, they have free Wi-Fi etc. A customer who sits there supping coffee and scoffing cake and makes the place seem lively for a few hours is a better prospect than an empty table I suppose. The footfall in the market town where I live has just increased to more than it was in 2019, theory is those wfh are choosing to buy their lunch/ sit in a cafe to work, take a walk around the town etc during the day, something they wouldn’t have done much of pre-Covid when most were office bound. Interesting times.

I can't believe that people's companies are happy for their employees to use the free wifi

That's a data breach waiting to happen!

It's the hogging of the large tables that get to me. If there's no other free tables, I've got my coffee, cake and a take-no-prisoners attitude, I'll plonk myself on the same table with a cursory 'is this seat taken?' question. Then I'll ask them about their day. We'll maybe not the last bit.