Loud business calls in cafes...

[Tangledteatowel]

I'm currently sitting in a cafe where quite a few people work – I am also trying to work. There is one woman who is having endless very loud business calls that are clearly disturbing everyone else... I have no issue with the occasional phone call but this has been going on for over an hour and is just her very loudly presenting to someone. I have noise cancelling headphones on and can still hear her clearly to the point where it's impossible for me to do any work. Is this the new norm??

YABU = it's fine to have very loud Teams calls in a cafe

YANBU = no, this is really rude and inconsiderate

Totally inconsiderate. I'd lean over her shoulder so that her audience can see you & ask her to keep the noise down.

But if they stop how will other people know how important they are?

Everyone needs to know that they make BUSINESS CALLS and are VERY IMPORTANT.

haha I think this is exactly what is going on – there is no need for the volume she is speaking at... I feel like she's presenting to the entire cafe!! Thankfully she's stopped now (an hour and a half of ridiculously loud presenting!) If she starts again, I'll leave. Everyone else is content to just get on with their work, I'm not sure why she has to be so performative..

Omg she has just started again. It's unreal! I regularly work from different cafes and have never come across anyone quite so entitled or rude!

Have a word with the staff?

Although | do wonder sometimes how cafes make any money these days. They are not a workplace

Join in.

Say you thought the whole cafe was included and given them some ideas.

Or start shouting about your own work.

God I would say something. I am that asshole who tells people off in the quiet zones on trains though. She might not know she is talking so loudly perhaps.

Don't people have concerns about confidentiality, apart from anything else?

One of the cafes near us has introduced a rule that laptops can't be used there over the lunch period and can't be used at all over the weekend. Seems sensible to me.

It’s one thing to work in a cafe if you are researching, dealing with emails, writing reports or working on spreadsheets, another if you are having to make or receive phone calls or having team meetings, I don’t really see how that works.

If you can tell which company she works for, & they're on Twitter, tweet about it, tagging her company in.

Awful - tell her to stop.

I am often subjected to people’s business calls while commuting and that drives me crazy too.

I hope that if there are quite a few people working in that cafe, you’re all buying food and drink regularly, especially if there’s not much space left for other customers.

Walk by and do a noisy guff.

People working in cafés is a pet peeve of mine, phone calls or not 😡 (but I realise I'm possibly unreasonable about that...)

Go and sit next to her and fake your own VERY LOUD phone call

YANBU, but I think some people don't know how loud they are. I have a lovely colleague who shouts into the phone (not in person thank god). We laugh at him for it but on some deep level he believes people can only hear him on the phone if he shouts.

I wonder if this lady's colleagues encourage her to WFH?

As a community worker I'd say you're definitely unreasonable...work needs doing between visits and it's not possible or time effective to drive all the way back to office to do so!

You'll be pleased to hear I never use my phone though 🤣

And also relay the contents of her conversations, especially if it’s the type of information they wouldn’t want tweeted.

Working in Starbucks is a team sport. This woman is obviously not a team sport. I would love to be brave enough to call her out but I’d probably just sit there fuming silently.

This drives me absolutely batty. even in shared workspaces it can happen - I think, to be fair, some people dont' realise how looud they are on thephone and this is worse in noisy environments - they instinctively go louder. I am a loud phone person but I'm very conscious of it and always go find somewhere private for calls because of itt.

On the plus side, I used to entertain myself endlessly when it was men doing this by guessing if they were talking to men or women. It was worrying how often I was right based on tone alone (I'd wonder by and sneak a peak at the teams/zoom call to see who was on!)

I just don’t know why there are no rules whatsoever in any public place about using phones and other devices on speaker. It’s excruciating to hear even if it’s quiet because it’s electronic.
I do think I’ll have to become a hermit!

While we're ranting though, can I just add my personal bug bear. I don't see this in cafes that much, but I often work in shared spaces or in one of my local gyms... and the people who just take up so much SPACE drive me mad. The men who then gather around each other and just bellow and chat. The woman who has a computer, a second screen, two handbags and a packed lunch and takes up 3 spaces or, my personal "favourite" the wanker who used to use our gym adult space to take conference calls while lying on a little couch with his feet up. They took the couch away.... I'm convinced because so many people complained about him!

YANBU especially if you were wearing noise-canceling headphones and could hear every word.

I have a high tolerance of noise in cafes but loud conference calls are inappropriate for the environment. Problem is, most workers aren't paid enough to enforce good behaviour, and the social fabric we've relied upon to rein people in is fraying, so there's a handful of people who will happily spoil a cafe environment by absolutely BELLOWING into their microphones with no regard for others.

Basically, your options boil down to

Suck it up/move tables/cafes
Listen carefully, note details, and use social media to inform their companies about their worker's bad manners (as another poster suggested above)
If you can burp on command and/or sing opera, spoil the call
If you have a great friend who doesn't mind taking your calls at any time, ring them up and have a VERY FRANK sex talk while pacing RIGHT BEHIND the caller's chair.

I mostly opt for the first, but once, when someone sat right next to me and took a zoom call ON SPEAKER, I employed the last option, and it wound up being quite satisfying.

This thread has made me chuckle.

I present an alternative situation in my current cafe work area. There is a man next to me who keeps jumping up and down constantly to go and take phone calls outside, which is considerate of him, but he has been in and out about 30 times and there is constant draughts of cold air coming in. I am dutifully keeping an eye on his laptop for him every time and he is giving me nice thumbs up through the window. I feel I have to be there for him! Who will look after his shit whilst he makes his ten million calls?!

Don't people have concerns about confidentiality, apart from anything else?

I came on to say exactly that.

I've often wondered this I've been out shopping before and gone into cafés where one person is sat at a table for 2/4 persons with no more than their phone and a lap top.

Aren't the shop owners allowed to request that their tables/chairs are to be used by those consuming food/drink purchased on site and once finished you pretty much leave.

Do people buy, say, coffee after coffee just so they can have WIFI/desk space and sit there for most of their working day.
Or just assume as they've paid for a coffee at 9.30 it allows them to stay until they feel like moving on.