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)

We no longer have an office base and work from home since covid. Our bosses have encouraged us to make use of public spaces to work from including coffee shops and I often do.

That said, I wouldn't dream of holding a work call in public, I dont like having a personal call in public!

We did meet up as a team in a local coffee shop recently and while conversation did drift on to work subjects, the intention was to relax and meet socially.

I WFH and wouldn't go to a cafe to work. I'd be too self conscious on the phone and I would get too distracted. I think it's fair enough if others do it but everyone just needs to be considerate.

My gym has an adult only space, behind glass doors, of the restaurant. Had the most comfy chairs and every table is for 4.

try getting a table in there after 9 for a quiet coffee or lunch later in the day - no tables for the whole of the day. AND I saw someone eating take out from Pret!

no more quiet zone either as just about everyone on a conference call

one time a lady asked another to be quiet as they were very loud on a conference call. We could all hear her plan to manage someone out. They had words about the volume oc the call so I leaned over and said their HR dept might be interested that a room full of strangers know their plan to manage out mr XYZ, complete with what package they may plan to give him to go and how that was a GDPR breach letting us know all about it.

Thankfully she packed up
And left.

Well that's just rude.

I live in a tiny flat. My only options are literally:
a) work sitting on my bed and destroy my back, have no differentiation between work and home/sleep.
b) Spend squillions I don't have renting some sad little battery chicken office that I sit in alone in for hours every day and never see or speak to another person.
c) Work from a cafe, where I get human companionship and the cafes get my money.
d) Pay for an expensive co-working space which would involve inconvenient travel, and be locked to one place with no option to go elsewhere.

I'd never dream of making a call or making noise (my work doesn't involve meetings basically ever), I don't take up much space, and the cafes I go to are almost completely empty during the day. I'm not affecting anyone in any way.

This is just all those "women who drink takeaway coffee are just doing it to show off" all over again. In the real world, people are just living their lives, they're not doing it to impress you.

I can't see how cafe owners would be 'grateful' for people hogging tables all day, nursing one or two coffees, preventing people who actually want to eat there from spending money. Surely the only way they can make money is if people come in for coffee or preferably a full lunch and then leave again shortly afterwards, leaving space for more people to do the same? I don't know anyone who would spend more than an hour in a cafe, whether socialising or working.

People who take calls in coffee shops are just rude.

But who are these hypothetical army of people who want to come into a coffee shop at 10am or 4pm, eat a full meal, then bugger off sharpish?

Obviously it's rude to hog lots of space in a busy cafe, but that's just about having basic manners and situational awareness, nothing to do with working from cafes. None of the cafes I work in are ever more than a quarter full (except on weekends, when I don't go in) - if I don't use them to work, that table will simply remain empty. Because there is no hypothetical "people who want to eat a meal at any random hour of the day" being prevented from taking a table, since there are tons of empty tables.

I swear, there's nothing you can post on MN that won't incite someone to reply, "But you're bad and wrong because if non-existing hypothetical person I just made up for the purpose of playing devil's advocate actually existed, if would affect them thus." But those people don't actually exist, so what's the point? Everyone knows it's rude to hog a table if it's super busy - doesn't make a difference if it's for work, reading a book, or chatting - and not possible to table hog if it's empty.

I went to a well know American burger cafe yesterday for a quick breakfast bun and a drink. No sooner had I sat down and not 1 but 2 fellas from a company (logo on waistcoat) sat down not 10 feet from me. It was quite obvious that when the laptop was opened that this was a Zoom call or something similar. Now I am used to working in an environment with other people in the same room or building. I have never experienced seeing this 'office' procedure before. Where was the Data Protection Act? confidentiality? Surely, there must be some legislation regarding sharing information in a public setting?

I go and work in a cafe once a week for a change of scenery, I have a couple of drinks and lunch whilst I'm in there, so I'm putting money in the till that I wouldn't spend if they didn't encourage people to come in and work

I use headphones if I get a call come through so I make less noise than people who insist on FaceTiming or using speaker for every conversation or those that let their kids run feral around the place!