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Can I WFH in Westfield shopping centre?!

11 replies

Excitedannie · 07/08/2023 11:08

Might sound strange but I've got a days annual leave on Thursday to take my DD and her friends shopping to Westfield in West London. I'm not very mobile at the moment so I can't really trudge round the shops, so I was going to people watch. There's only a certain amount of drinking tea and people watching I can do so I was thinking of only taking half a days leave, and doing some work there.

Does anyone know of any places in the shopping centre where this might be possible as most of the cafes are open.

OP posts:
FatAgainItsLettuceTime · 07/08/2023 11:20

Are you allowed by company policy to connect your device to public Wi-Fi? Or do you have a work phone you can use to hotspot from?

Are you allowed by company policy to take any calls/meetings in a public place?

You can technically work from any cafe that has a seat available, as long as you regularly buy drinks/foods from the cafe to cover the cost of your table, but your company may not allow you to,

bananaboats · 07/08/2023 11:22

I wouldn't be allowed to do this at my work so might be worth checking your contract before

MrsBennetsPoorNerves · 07/08/2023 11:24

Yes, we don't allow employees to connect via public WiFi as it's not secure. Mobile hotspot would be OK though, assuming you aren't working on anything confidential.

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Comefromaway · 07/08/2023 11:39

A lot of the coffee places are open in the centre of the mall but there is a Cafe Nero and a Black Sheep Coffee that I think have tables inside.

Comefromaway · 07/08/2023 11:43

Apparently there is a Costa with free wifi and power points that is good to work from.

sashagabadon · 07/08/2023 11:44

Yes you can. Upstairs in food court area there loads of seats / tables in bays/ booths and you can just sit there. No one will move you on or say anything. Take a small booth though to be fair to diners and sit overlooking the atrium ( where women seem to be doing yoga atm!) so away from the food

Moredramathanrazzamatazz · 07/08/2023 11:59

There are two large coffee shops across from John Lewis, one on top of the other (ie same location on different floors, you can see them both from the opposite escalator balcony) with plenty of seating.

A lot of these places are noisy; the centre is noisy. The back of Starbucks (not the one in the main atrium, the one in a unit), quite near to these two, is quieter, but it's not very big so you might get moved on unless you buy plenty of drinks. No idea on sockets as I don't work from there, just visit sometimes.

There are also restaurants that if not busy might let you buy some lunch or a snack, coffees etc., and work from there, worth having a look. Not the ones inside the centre (noisy) but the ones outside in a row (with a break and steps in the middle) along the walkway from one main entrance to the other.

The location around and in Five Guys is sometimes a quieter spot in the centre than some of the restaurants and cafes are, but as it is school hols and a major hangout for the youth of the area, doubt it, and it's near the cluster of child-related shops too.

There is a Regus office place by Shepherd's Bush tube station, if it transpires you actually aren't allowed to work from a cafe or it is too noisy.

Black Sheep and Costa are not in the Westfield Centre, they are on the walk-up from the underground station on the same side, effectively within the outdoor bus station with the overground station opposite. And in the same location as Regus. (There might be another Costa inside the centre, I can't remember. There might also be some other cafes, ditto.)

user556378 · 07/08/2023 12:02

I do this all the time, work from coffee shops. Does your company have a VPN?

Excitedannie · 07/08/2023 12:17

Some great suggestions, thanks so much. Yes, our company has a VPN but I don't always log in to use it - depends what I'm doing

OP posts:
SkylarSpirit · 07/08/2023 13:18

Yeah I sometimes work from Westfield, lots of cafes where they don't care if you set up shop. And free tables that are shared between all the places in the food court.

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