Teams calls in cafe and toddler

[Swiftswatch]

I’m probably being unreasonable for posting here in the first place since there’s a bit of an anti kids in public sentiment here at times, but when did it become acceptable for people to think a coffee shop is the same as an office??
I was just having breakfast and a coffee with my toddler and someone was taking a teams call at a nearby table. If it’s relevant we were seated first.
Toddler was being good as gold imo, I get sometimes they can be too loud or badly behaved but they were just sat drinking their juice and having a little babble and sing, occasionally pointing out things they seen. “Cup! Cup!” Obviously louder than if I was just sat by myself but really not a disturbance and no louder than any other table of 2 chatting.

The man was sat sighing and rolling his eyes for about ten minutes until I just had to turn to him and say ‘sorry but this is actually a cafe not an office, if you’re in a meeting and need silence you’re in the wrong place’.
He did a big huff, picked up his laptop and walked off trying to find a new table but had to come back as it was too busy.

Now he’s sitting there giving me evil eyes.

AIBU to think I’m not in the wrong here?? I’m really not a confrontational person and normal wouldn’t speak up but a public cafe at breakfast time isn’t exactly the place to do a work meeting!
If people want to rave about working from home then go fucking work at home. People out in public don’t need to tiptoe around you because you want a change of scenery during the work day while you sit in meetings.

How dare this woman go for a drink in a cafe with her child…🙄

He’s an idiot who needs an office or some headphones.

The woman has every right to go to a cafe with her child and make childish noises.

The man has every right to go to a cafe with his laptop and pull childish faces.

Agree - many cafes want his custom as much as they want yours.

You were probably both being a little unreasonable and both unwilling to accommodate each others needs.

I remember that episode. It make me wonder what cafes think of one person and their big clunky laptop hogging a whole table for 2 hours and insisting the whole cafe listens in on their boring conversation with Gemma from Accounts, all for the price of a macchiato.

I wonder if some cafes will introduce stricter guidelines about this sort of thing? Because some folk really do seem to think the local Costa is their very own office.

Social spaces and work spaces are increasingly becoming one and the same - much in part to cafes etc encouraging business users to drum up revenue.

The fact is though, if other people's noise is going to be an issue, don't be in a communal space, whether you're working or socialising.

We had a similar issue in my actual office a couple of months ago where a guy who rents a hot desk in the central communal area took umbrage with the noise coming from a private rented office as he was on the phone and had the nerve and audacity to go over and huffily slam shut the door of the private office, this resulted in a full on scrap as he was challenged and swung at the other person - and lost - and was promptly barred from the premises. His ego had took over and he was obviously expecting a private office experience with a communal working space budget - bit like this guy.

I think these cafes are missing a trick, imagine how much they could make if they started charging people for using the tables as their own personal office space

This bloke was being a twat because he's a twat. NOT because he's a man and his needs etc etc. If it had been a woman, she would still be a twat (and I'm sure somebody on MN has encountered one) and gender or sex or whatever it's called nowadays wouldn't have been mentioned.

MN is turning into a misandrist's paradise.

I wouldn't be surprised if some cafes introduced a 'laptop surcharge' or something like that. I know that on the one hand the cafes appreciate the business, but not everyone can be trusted to behave reasonably,

YANBU.

Incidentally, I recently saw a parent on a work Teams call in the cafe of a soft play. I was a bit baffled by it. It would never occur to me to try and work in a public place and look after young kids and to be open about that fact with colleagues. That's an amazingly lenient employer!

I agree with you, I was sat in a cafe in the train station recently and the bloke opposite was on a conference call, loudly telling everyone around him things that should have been private and confidential. Idiot!

A lot of these people make one coffee last hours, and they are plugging their lap tops into the cafes electricity supply. I think cafes etc should be charging because they sure are not making money from people blocking tables half the day with one coffee!

I can imagine they would also put other customers off who would purchase more than a coffee

Of course YANBU.

I quite often work in cafes for an hour or so, just to get out of the house, but not when I have a meeting scheduled.

Or, alternatively, an employer who understands work/life balance.

And the woman has every right to tell him to get to fuck, so simple 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

It would put me off.

A cafe is supposed to be a relaxing, convivial environment, which is difficult if half the room is sat staring at a screen discussing the dull details of their 'new HR shake up'.

And yet, imagine if he had actually said anything to her about her child. The flaming he would have got on here!

Fine for him to do a call in a cafe, but this comes with attendant risks. One of which is someone being in there with a toddler, which is also fine. If he wants a public venue that doesn't have toddlers, he can find somewhere child free. A casino perhaps.

Or a Wetherspoons. A Wetherspoons would be much quieter at 10.30 am than a coffee shop and you can get coffee there.

Well that's the way the cookie crumbles, it's tough shit all round really 😈😝

That's a much better idea than mine!

I don't even expect colleagues in an office to be silent when I'm on a Teams call - if I need quiet I either arrange to work from home or find a break out space with fewer people around. He was being ridiculous

I imagine it was a lot more relaxing when the face pulling bloke flounced off. It's sad when a grown man starts huffing and eyerolling, can you imagine what he's like the rest of the time?

Sad way to spend his work day…i’d rather be in a work environment than rolling my eyes at people in cafe’s. I hope he gets a table of 10 mums sit next to him next time 😀

And he then comes to moan about it on mn, and everyone, but a small number of posters, start calling him out for being an absolute twat 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

YANBU. A friend and I were having a coffee, a chat and a laugh when a woman at an adjacent table asked (told) us to keep the noise down as she was in a meeting. Not even a virtual one, with the 2 other people at her table, in a Costa 😂

We ignored her.