Page 13 | People who 'work' at cafe tables

BeagleMum1 · 2023-06-28T09:04:28+00:00

Why do cafe's allow this? I'm sitting in a cafe and over half the tables are being sat at, by a single person on laptop, 'working'. These tables could seat up to 4 people. Some have bought a cafe drink but others are just sitting there without a drink or food. They are table blocking and at busier times, will prevent other customers who might buy more drinks / food from getting a seat. AIBU?

MintyCedric · 02/07/2023 16:36

greenstrawberry · 28/06/2023 10:09

they are providing the cafe with income. Not all of them are the stay for hours without buying more than the cheapest drink.

As a WFH person this might be the only time I get out of my house in the week! I don't take the piss though.

And let's be honest, when people use a table in a coffee shop, even when not working, we usually avoid that table anyway (I'd prefer not to sit with a stranger unless absolutely necessary).

I do get it from the table hogger perspective though. e.g. someone comes in and stays all day buying one coffee. that's not on.

But a couple of hours out of the house is great.

Tip for anyone WFH who needs to escape sometimes - working in a pub in the daytime can often be cheaper, quieter and less crowded! I often head to my local on weekdays, grab a lime and soda, and one of the many empty tables for a couple of hours. Often better than coffee shops!

I sometimes work at pub locally. They do a ‘desk space deal’ where you can settle in, use a socket and their Wi-Fi, get a posh sandwich and chips for lunch and unlimited tea/coffee/soft drinks for a tenner.

It’s bloody marvellous!

fizzypop100 · 02/07/2023 16:51

Our local Costa is always packed with students on laptops . Really annoying. They sit there chatting and making a lot of noise but not working. Usually just one buys a drink and the rest are lazying around on the sofas

PuddlesPityParty · 02/07/2023 16:55

BillyNotQuiteNoMates · 02/07/2023 09:08

YANBU it’s a nightmare for cafe owners. Less so for the staff who still get paid the same for doing less work.😂
seriously though, far too many people do this and see nothing wrong with it. Asking them to leave isn’t really an option, and they can table block all day long.

Eh? Why can’t they ask them to leave?

Tiredalwaystired · 02/07/2023 17:01

fizzypop100 · 02/07/2023 16:51

Our local Costa is always packed with students on laptops . Really annoying. They sit there chatting and making a lot of noise but not working. Usually just one buys a drink and the rest are lazying around on the sofas

Erm - you’re annoyed because they’re having social time in a cafe..?

I mean, I dont have any issue with people working in a coffee shop but to be annoyed because not everyone is silently observing their work over a latte is frankly bizarre.

Womencanlift · 02/07/2023 18:15

I hope some of you that are working in cafes are not in jobs where you are discussing confidential information, particularly mine if I am a customer of your company

I can just imagine now phoning up a utility company and going through security and hearing “that is a flat white for Jane” in the background 😂

NeonSoda · 02/07/2023 18:18

Womencanlift · 02/07/2023 18:15

I hope some of you that are working in cafes are not in jobs where you are discussing confidential information, particularly mine if I am a customer of your company

I can just imagine now phoning up a utility company and going through security and hearing “that is a flat white for Jane” in the background 😂

People who deal with confidential information usually have restrictions about where they can work.

I don’t deal with confidential information and most people I chat to during the day are in busy leisure centres. ;-)

regustering · 02/07/2023 18:24

BeagleMum1 · 28/06/2023 10:08

Who really wants to share a table? I don't. Esp if I'm meeting a friend for a catch up

Yeah and it will give them the hint to move

flurbubbly · 02/07/2023 18:27

NeonSoda · 02/07/2023 13:49

If trains actually had decent size trays in the non-table sections I’d sit there… but while the tables are only in the four sections then that’s where I’ll sit!

I did most of an Open University degree while commuting to work every day on the train, sitting at a table!

If I’ve paid the same as everyone else for a ticket then I honestly don’t really give a shit if someone thinks I shouldn’t sit at a table.

Show quote history

That's very cool and impressive!

BillyNotQuiteNoMates · 02/07/2023 18:41

ohdamnitjanet · 02/07/2023 14:47

As a restaurant worker - yes it gets on our bloody nerves. Taking a table for two hours or more and just buying a coffee? Buy lunch or fuck off. And don’t bring your sodding dog with you.

Love it 🤣

BillyNotQuiteNoMates · 02/07/2023 18:42

Womencanlift · 02/07/2023 18:15

I hope some of you that are working in cafes are not in jobs where you are discussing confidential information, particularly mine if I am a customer of your company

I can just imagine now phoning up a utility company and going through security and hearing “that is a flat white for Jane” in the background 😂

You might be surprised at dome of the personal info I've overheard

flurbubbly · 02/07/2023 18:51

fizzypop100 · 02/07/2023 16:51

Our local Costa is always packed with students on laptops . Really annoying. They sit there chatting and making a lot of noise but not working. Usually just one buys a drink and the rest are lazying around on the sofas

So people using cafes for the purpose most people on this thread have been arguing they should be used for, ie socialising, and you don't like it.

Wonder what OP and the posters insisting that cafes are spaces for chatting and socialising, not quiet and working, think about that! Just goes to prove that people can use cafes for literally any and all purposes, there will always be someone upset about it.

I hope some of you that are working in cafes are not in jobs where you are discussing confidential information, particularly mine if I am a customer of your company

That comment feels like an attempt at a gotcha/strawman. It's really unlikely anyone working with confidential info would be working from a cafe because those workplaces are strict about that. No one working in a call centre or similar is going to be taking customer phone calls from a cafe, that's just silly.

My work doesn't involve anyone else's info and doesn't involve making any phone or Zoom calls.

far too many people do this and see nothing wrong with it.
The places I go to are almost completely empty. If I wasn't there, the table would be empty. There is no magical hypothetical customer whose table I am selfishly taking away. The options are me and whatever I purchase, or an empty table and zero purchases. There's not a retail owner on the planet that would choose empty tables and zero customers over customers spending money.

Stringing out a £3 coffee with 2 or 3 appliances plugged in and charging!
More strawmen! None of the cafes I work from even have electrical outlets, and I've certainly never seen anyone with three devices plugged in. Cafes that have made a deliberate choice to install electrical outlets in the public part of the cafe are clearly trying to encourage people to stay longer by encouraging them to use devices. Otherwise they wouldn't spend money on things like public wifi and public outlets. Spending money on those things is a conscious choice. Plenty of places don't have public wifi and that's a pretty clear signal that those aren't laptop-appropriate places. My work doesn't need wifi but I wouldn't get a laptop out in a non-wifi cafe because it's clearly a hint that it's not that type of place.

If you own/work in a cafe and you want people to stop, just switch off the wifi and cover up the outlets. Easy peasy. If it's not your cafe, accept that the cafe owners are actively trying to encourage people whose presence you find bothersome for some reason and either learn to tolerate people who don't do things the way you do them or go elsewhere.

Seriously I can't understand the problem. I don't use electricity, I don't use wifi, I buy stuff, and the table would just be empty without me. How could that possibly be wrong or negatively affect anyone else?

Fandabedodgy · 02/07/2023 18:56

Lots of cafes advertise to attract these people. There's usually an agreement to
purchase x products per hour.

Tezza78 · 02/07/2023 19:08

I think you are an incredibly patronising, and rather ignorant curtain twitcher - mainly from your responses to your own thread - with this one in particular.

I work in a field based engagement role and your assumptions that sales people are performative, "always on loud calls", in a cafe but are only "working", taking up loads of space etc are - arrogant, insulting to sales people and not true.

I notice you also demand that people who WFM should only "work AT home" - so what's your suggestion when I am in London for a day of meetings? Jump back on a train home for an hour when between meetings and then spend the next hour travelling back? Cafe's know their market, the vast, vast majority of people buy multiple coffees/lunch if there for several hours, customers like this are highly valued.

I work extremely hard and yes I do actually work when sat in a cafe/a Wetherspoons/on the train - I can concentrate very well thank you. I'm not just being "performative" for some nosy busybody who should frankly mind her own business.

MissTwinklePaws · 02/07/2023 19:22

fizzypop100 · 02/07/2023 16:51

Our local Costa is always packed with students on laptops . Really annoying. They sit there chatting and making a lot of noise but not working. Usually just one buys a drink and the rest are lazying around on the sofas

Of all the cafes, don't choose the student Costa, then. When I was a student, I avoided any overflowing with people and went elsewhere

CowboyFromHell · 02/07/2023 19:29

I think OP and the other ‘cafes are no places for work’ posters could do with a bit of a history lesson. Cafes have doubled up as workplaces for centuries - the first UK coffeehouses were places where people gathered, socialised, worked & did business. It’s just that work now often involves tapping on a laptop rather than exchanging than exchanging information on the trade opportunities in the south seas.

Milkand2sugarsplease · 02/07/2023 19:40

This thread is brilliant. Don't use the cafe for working, don't use the cafe for making calls but don't use the cafe for socialising either. Bloody hell, all the cafes will be shut at this rate.

Fandabedodgy · 02/07/2023 20:34

Womencanlift · 02/07/2023 18:15

I hope some of you that are working in cafes are not in jobs where you are discussing confidential information, particularly mine if I am a customer of your company

I can just imagine now phoning up a utility company and going through security and hearing “that is a flat white for Jane” in the background 😂

The best place to overhear confidential info is on the train.

I've heard some corkers there over the years.

Perfect28 · 02/07/2023 20:41

@Milkand2sugarsplease it's not so much about what people use the space for as people using and taking up tables and not buying anything or buying very little. Asking people to leave isn't the easy fix people think it is and in my experience has caused confrontations and poor reviews.

Original poster

BeagleMum1 · 02/07/2023 21:20

ohdamnitjanet · 02/07/2023 14:47

As a restaurant worker - yes it gets on our bloody nerves. Taking a table for two hours or more and just buying a coffee? Buy lunch or fuck off. And don’t bring your sodding dog with you.

🤣

OP posts:

Original poster

BeagleMum1 · 02/07/2023 21:25

JFDIYOLO · 02/07/2023 09:03

One local cafe has a row of benches along the wall with small tables and charger points, for laptop jockeys.

All other tables have big signs saying No Laptops.

It really works. There's space for everyone

Also the WiFi password is something like BuyCoffee

Sounds very sensible. Give all the 'workers' a long, hard wooden bench to perch on. Don't let them get too comfy!

OP posts:

Original poster

BeagleMum1 · 02/07/2023 21:27

Tezza78 · 02/07/2023 19:08

I think you are an incredibly patronising, and rather ignorant curtain twitcher - mainly from your responses to your own thread - with this one in particular.

I work in a field based engagement role and your assumptions that sales people are performative, "always on loud calls", in a cafe but are only "working", taking up loads of space etc are - arrogant, insulting to sales people and not true.

I notice you also demand that people who WFM should only "work AT home" - so what's your suggestion when I am in London for a day of meetings? Jump back on a train home for an hour when between meetings and then spend the next hour travelling back? Cafe's know their market, the vast, vast majority of people buy multiple coffees/lunch if there for several hours, customers like this are highly valued.

I work extremely hard and yes I do actually work when sat in a cafe/a Wetherspoons/on the train - I can concentrate very well thank you. I'm not just being "performative" for some nosy busybody who should frankly mind her own business.

Well that told me!! Have a 🏅

OP posts:

Original poster

BeagleMum1 · 02/07/2023 21:30

Fandabedodgy · 02/07/2023 18:56

Lots of cafes advertise to attract these people. There's usually an agreement to
purchase x products per hour.

Agreement?! There needs to be a contract. Take their credit card details - put in place a minimum spend.

OP posts:

HunterHearstHelmsley · 02/07/2023 21:54

BeagleMum1 · 29/06/2023 11:53

The Cafe is not your personal workplace. It's a public space. Go and do your phone calls somewhere private if you are effing and jeffing. I don't blame the parent for getting annoyed with you.

Show quote history

Indeed, it's not my personal space! I wasn't going to temper my language for someone who didn't even have the common decency to ask "are these seats free?" The answer would have been... Yeah, absolutely. Make yourself at home!

Fandabedodgy · 02/07/2023 22:41

@BeagleMum1

Yes agreement.

SarahAndQuack · 02/07/2023 22:46

Womencanlift · 02/07/2023 18:15

I hope some of you that are working in cafes are not in jobs where you are discussing confidential information, particularly mine if I am a customer of your company

I can just imagine now phoning up a utility company and going through security and hearing “that is a flat white for Jane” in the background 😂

Oh, no, I hate to break it to you, but it's absolutely the case that MI5 just insisted its workers work in coffee shops. The bank of England high-ups too, and all high court judges. It's shocking how no one except you has thought to raise this question of confidentiality yet. What a service you perform!