People working on laptops in cafes 😡

Jeez am fairly new to this site and is something else to see how posters get stuck into a poster and then just carry on getting stuck in.
Am sorry I posted the blooming thing now.

Doodledog

I don't think anyone is upbraiding you, so much as disagreeing with the 'cafe police' who want everyone to conform to their view of what cafes are 'for'.

A few of us have disagreed with that, but made a point of saying that we understand your disappointment at not getting a suitable seat, particularly given your husband's disability. Please don't feel 'got at' - I don't think it's like that at all.

Thanks for that.
But I really will think twice and then twice again before posting.
X

Fallingstar

All the comments unbraiding me for my original post have already been made in no uncertain terms.
Thanks for all your replies but I get it. OK.

I wouldn’t upbraid you. I understand how important it is to have places you can go to that work for you when you have additional requirements. In my small market town we have plenty of coffee bars but many I can’t safely access. People who don’t have these limitations generally don’t understand how disappointing what happened to you was. I hope you can come up with a solution - of the suggestions made, I think booking is a good one.

At a macro level - and I think it might be an idea for cafes to amend their practice slightly of handing number cards to people waiting for something to be served to them (eg table no 19 is waiting for their lunch) and hand people number cards appropriate to the time they bought their refreshments. If it's just a cup of coffee and bought at, say, 10 am = they could hand them a card to put on the table that is, say, "10 - 1". That would indicate "bought at 10am - is one item (ie a cup of coffee)" and then decide their own applicable time rationing - ie whether someone still sitting there/and nothing extra bought was allowed to be there come the time they were handing out cards saying "11-1" (ie one item bought at 11am).

That could be one way of dealing with this - ie staff could see that someone was still sitting there with a laptop at....say.....12 noon...but the card on their table said "10-1" and the cafe was too busy by then to allow for someone monopolising a table as "work from home office - but done in the cafe" iyswim.

I get the point re office jobs sometimes don't allow a desk that is "just yours" these days and will maybe not allow a worker in to work at their own desk (ie because someone else is using it instead - and there are no spare desks they can claim instead). I was an office worker prior to retirement and that malarkey started up somewhat in my time and I remember having to figure out tactics to deal with the matter when they got to a stage where there was one desk short for everyone and no-one would let me indicate a desk was "mine" any longer - and, funnily enough, I was the only person they were playing that game with!!!! Not funny to have to wait for someone to resign from their job before I could go grab a desk and make it very visibly "MINE - do not touch!" and make it plain "There are enough desks now - so you can't deny one of them is just mine again" to the employer. I also can see that some people literally don't have enough space in their home for them to live in and treat as their home AND also let their employer make a grab for it by expecting them to treat a bit of their precious space in THEIR home as rent-free workspace for the employer to use.

There needs to be a way forward on this - but it does have to be one that honours the fact that a cafe is first and foremost a cafe (and not a workspace). Customers get to use a cafe as a cafe first and foremost and office workers have "2nd dibs" to use any tables as "workspace to save their employers money on providing desks in an office as they should".

Fallingstar please don't stop posting. Your posts are valued. You have got us talking about cafes!

People will always have opposing views but if anyone has been personal and upset you then that's not acceptable.
Sorry your thread has made you feel like this 💐

Thanks Tuliptree and AGAA4, will post again, but will have to think hard about what I say because some posters seem to see me as someone I am not. Maybe that is their problem but it isn’t a nice feeling to see myself described in a way that nobody who knows me would recognise.
Anyway it is what it is.

Fallingstar

Jeez am fairly new to this site and is something else to see how posters get stuck into a poster and then just carry on getting stuck in.
Am sorry I posted the blooming thing now.

It seems to happen more and more now.

A pile-on. Very unkind.

Just to add, I haven't noticed many people working on laptops in coffee shops around here although I don't frequent them often.

Perhaps I should get out more - or not?

Fallingstar

Thanks Tuliptree and AGAA4, will post again, but will have to think hard about what I say because some posters seem to see me as someone I am not. Maybe that is their problem but it isn’t a nice feeling to see myself described in a way that nobody who knows me would recognise.
Anyway it is what it is.

I think the problem here was some posters were tone deaf as to what you really wanted/ needed. The music behind the words. Some threads clearly require some kindness, sympathy and understanding. This was one of them imo. Suggestions like booking or asking people to move, fine. Explaining wfh and economics of running a coffee bar - not so fine.

Allira

Fallingstar

Jeez am fairly new to this site and is something else to see how posters get stuck into a poster and then just carry on getting stuck in.
Am sorry I posted the blooming thing now.

It seems to happen more and more now.

A pile-on. Very unkind.

I don't think it was a pile-on - but yep....am aware that pile-ons do happen even on a site where people should be old enough/mature enough not to do things like that. Maybe some people wander in from Mumsnet looking to create a pile-on?

Fallingstar don’t stop posting, very rarely will there be a thread where everyone agrees.

GrannyGravy13

Fallingstar don’t stop posting, very rarely will there be a thread where everyone agrees.

Well, yes, I agree 😀
Yes, most people have their own opinions, of course.

But there are ways of saying things without upsetting those who ask a reasonable question.

Allira most definitely 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

Costa seem to be the worse for laptop tappers sitting for hours in cafes.
The one on the table next to ours last week didn’t even have a cup either full or empty.
I meet a friend there every week for a coffee and chat before we go shopping and if they are sitting at the chairs and sofa bit of the cafe we plonk on the sofa opposite, it’s for four people in any case.
You should do the same next time Fallingstar just nod hello if they look up.
And ignore any disparaging comments on this thread.

Indeed Allira and Oreo. I made it clear that I respected other peoples opinions, and made sure that I didn’t make it personal.
Anyway back to the topic in hand, which is btw about people using laptops in cafes and not about how foolish, entitled, or illogical I am.
Thank you.

Doodledog

I don't think anyone is upbraiding you, so much as disagreeing with the 'cafe police' who want everyone to conform to their view of what cafes are 'for'.

A few of us have disagreed with that, but made a point of saying that we understand your disappointment at not getting a suitable seat, particularly given your husband's disability. Please don't feel 'got at' - I don't think it's like that at all.

Your first paragraph made me smile in a wry way….what cafes are for😄

They're customers too

Falling star and dear husband,
I am sorry to hear all of this.
I also like coffee at cafe Nero. Yes, I noticed that there are far too many people just working on lap tops. In a way they got used to this during COVID when they were all isolated at home. Those days are gone and they are behaving in an exceptionally selfish and ignorant behaviour. It is about time we said something to the managers on our way out. Take care of yourselves

Why? Surely they are 'for' what their customers want to use them for?

That will vary from area to area, but in the end the managers/owners will do what works for them or close down. If someone issued people in my Wednesday group a ticket with a time on it we would just go elsewhere. We come from different towns, and many are reliant on buses getting in at different times, so whilst we aim for 11.00am, some arrive at 10.15 and others at 11.15. As I say, the owners are happy for us to be there - they push tables together in advance - as we are a reliable source of income. Passing trade is, by definition, unreliable, so it makes sense.

Maybe that wouldn't work in London, or in Windermere or other tourist places that rely on people resting their legs whilst taking in the attractions, but those managers will have their own ways of dealing with that. I don't think that one size fits all.

Sorry - I got distracted and didn't attach the quote. That was in response to Oreo.

Please keep posting Falling star. It's important to hear the different opinions unlike an echo chamber.
Posts on here often go off piste but that can be fun too.
You've touched a nerve 😜

I think this happens a lot nowadays and cafe owners aren't happy either. If they make a complaint that someone has been taking up space and using their electricity to charge laptops, enjoying their heat and light etc all for the purchase of 1 coffee then the customers just buy another coffee or water.

It’s life. I have rare autoimmunes and travel to London on the train and tube to get to hospital. Sometimes I feel so ill I can barely stand, but people have the right to sit. I’m afraid the world doesn’t revolve around us.

Some librarys have installed a café inside them so that the people who are there a long time,maybe students,or workers on laptops can use this to full advantage,freeing up normal cafe tables.Might be worth mentioning next time your in that Nero's that last time you couldnt get a comfy seat,and why,and ask if they'l help you get a comfy seat? Maybe the staff can have a 'polite word' with them instead of you? And it will also draw their attention to these seat- hoggers,who,even if they buy a couple of coffees etc still should not be hogging the best seats in the house like that,and counter staff might be too busy to notice that theyre doing that?

Pix5

It’s life. I have rare autoimmunes and travel to London on the train and tube to get to hospital. Sometimes I feel so ill I can barely stand, but people have the right to sit. I’m afraid the world doesn’t revolve around us.

If someone doesn't notice and release their seat for you - and it is the case most people are very self-involved and don't notice = then I would say it's perfectly acceptable to smile nicely at a young man (or, if there's no young man, there then in order of priority children, older man, young woman, etc) and explain you really do need a seat because "illness" (with quick one sentence explanation of what that illness is) and they should release their seat for you.

If this doesn't seem to work too well - then for future reference put the volume of your voice up a bit so that those in surrounding seats will hear your request. That should hopefully release the original seat and the young man or children who has just been asked gets up for you. But, if not, others will have heard too and one of them should offer instead.