People who 'work' at cafe tables

[BeagleMum1]

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?

I am currently sitting in a cafe alone at a table for four, MNing on my phone. So there! 😛

Perhaps I do? 🧐

OP - why do you think you should police this and people should do what you want? It clearly works for the café because they allow it, it clearly works for many cafés because they allow it.
It's their business and they can let whatever they want happen within it (within the law of course).

You don't have to visit that particular café, it's not mandatory, you don't have to visit any café that doesn't suit your needs, you have a choice, why do you think they should change the way they run their business to suit you?

Nothing to show off about!

Thanks op, I work from home four days a week. I’m goi g to go up to Starbucks tomorrow and work sorry “work” from there.

as an aside, what’s your view on people working sorry “working” from the costa concession in their local hospital when they are waiting for an elderly relative? Is that performative as well? I’ve also worked sorry “worked” just outside the hospital revolving doors doing meetings on my phone, I should probably not have done that as I was no doubt hogging space and disturbing the patients who had gone out / been wheeled out for a cigarette.

im clearly a real show off!

why so much bitterness? It's puzzling.

Are you a failed writer and resent everyone else?
Jealous of those who are paid to basically spend the day in a Cafe?
Envious of those who you think have important or senior jobs when you are stuck in a cubicle somewhere?

Just what is your problem?

I'm not bitter, there's no jealousy. I'm happy with my work, it's actually a vocation.

you are the one making a very angry thread about it all, so expect people to wonder why you are getting so worked up about it.

I sort of get it. Cafes are primarily places of leisure where people go to relax, socialise, meet friends or have a bit of downtime on their own. The ambience changes when it's full of people on laptops or work related phonecalls.

It really does. Cafe's are a social space.

This subject is rapidly starting to become one of the most repeated questions on here

The Cafe is NOT a public space - it's still cafe owner's property and they have the right to have whoever they want, or not, on their premises (subject to discrimination laws). Customers have no say whatsoever - though they are free to bugger off somewhere else if they don't like the cafe owner's choices!

Can't be that social if you started a thread online while sitting in one 😂

Myself and another poster both asked this yesterday and got no answer from the OP. From the radio silence at her end, I'm assuming she doesn't know how inverted commas work and thinks they're for emphasis or something. Because her other posts seem to imply that these people she's complaining about are actually working, rather than using their laptops to binge watch Netflix series, so either she doesn't understand inverted commas, or she bizarrely thinks that nothing done on a laptop is real work. Maybe only manual labour counts as work for her. 😅

I neither work in cafés nor have a problem with people who do, but I do object to anyone who does being labelled as not really working.

Maybe only manual labour counts as work for her.

"vocational" manual labour thank you 😂

I don't think you can truly work sitting in a cafe, hence I've put 'work'. Too distracting. Why seek out that particular environment if you are purely working? It doesn't make sense.

My point remains - please don't sit with your laptop open, hogging a large table, perhaps not even purchasing food or drink, conducting job interviews, attending online meetings, making loud phone calls.

I don't want to be part of your working environment, thank you.

Maybe reading and replying to routine emails, but anything that requires a high level of concentration, no I wouldn't think it was ideal.

You do win the award for the most self-centred and entitled attitude of the thread I give you that.

Wow, I 100% defend your choice to work in a cafe. But saying “cunt” in front of kids is, well, cuntish.

MY point remains that I will continue to take my laptop to various cafes, buying a coffee, a full lunch, another coffee, perhaps a frappe if it's hot, spending in the region of £20 a visit, staying for maybe 2-3 hours at a time, even 4 if it's a nice day and I don't feel like going back to my hot and cramped home office, attending online meeting with headphones if I need to, not being loud in any was because I am not a loud person, doing some detailed work if I have any as I find this easy to do with the some background white noise, or perhaps doing the boring spreadsheet updates that I can do from anywhere, because I have as much right to be there as you, or anyone else.

Other cafes are available, I’m sure.

It’s up to the owner what sort of atmosphere they want to create. Maybe just accept that you are not a valued customer in this one and find another more to your taste?

And unprofessional. Not the kind of thing you'd say in the office, so why say it in a cafe you are using as your office.

I find it incredibe how the 'work' people can be so confident that other people can't work in a public place. They literally cannot conceive that some people have much better concentration skills and/or better computer skills and have a very different lifestyle from people that can only chit chat in a cafe. It's actually mind-blowing that such anchronistic and inflexible rigid thinkers still exist.

I can work effectively literally anywhere. I have a home office and a wework type place in London but I am just as happy in a cafe, on a plane, in a waiting room etc.