Cafe , pub or pop up office?

Glad I'm not the only one. I love the stories of GC playing their part in scuppering the culprits.

Someone else is bound to have said this but email the store and complain. Free wifi in many places (Costa, Starbucks, etc) encourages people to use them as their office but it must cost them business. It is possible to put filters on wifi so that people only get a set time and then it stops and they must log in again - our community wifi has this and also filters to stop people downloading large files such as films. It is possible to buy an annual pass but for most the 20 free minutes is enough to check anything important!

My DD works for a large coffee chain and some of the stories she has told me over the years .....

A mother changing her baby on a table .

A Business meeting held in one corner with tables and chairs pulled together to form a mini board room then one of the “delegates” telling other patrons to “shhhh, he was trying to conduct a meeting”

A group of ladies and their kids who frequently take up a large corner, never buy a thing then proceed to empty their own food onto the tables and pretend the can’t speak English when challenged.

We once went for breakfast at a well known Italian restaurant. Next to us, and again using a large table were two 'office types' They were conducting interviews . Quite a few young people came in . We could overhear all the conversation. Most strange.

The job on offer had nothing to do with the restaurant.

I went out for lunch with a friend last weekend and the large restaurant had few tables occupied. We had booked and were told to choose a table but I chose one for two people although I would have preferred a table for 4 or 6 because the light and view were better but I would never do that. Within an hour the place was very busy.

I travelled home recently from a short break by train. Two businesswomen, one opposite and one next to me, had papers all over my side of the table, plus their laptops open, again, on my side of the table. No consideration for me at all, they just seemed to think that they were more important and took priority, although presumably I had paid the same fare as them and had paid for myself, although I assume that their companies would have paid their fares.

If the occupant of that table had said to me he wasn't planning on moving for another hour and a half I think I would have .... "Oh I am so pleased to hear that, I'll join you - I like chatting while having coffee and not sitting alone!"

If that didn't get him thinking about moving I would have carried on with....."your face looks so familiar ..... I have a friend who has a husband who is the image of you but let me tell you about all the problems they are facing......."

I can more or less guarantee that at this point he would be pulling together all his paperwork an shutting down his laptop and bolting for the exit!

Same with our supermarket, people park there, then do their shopping in the town, also leave their car there to be cleaned while going into town, annoying at peak times when there aren't any spaces left and you are a prospective legitimate shopper in the supermarket.

I don't think the wifi code is necessary, jenpax? I can access the interenet from my phone without one in coffee shops, and if that is used to get the signal for the laptop, no code is needed.

Maybe the solution is that the WiFi code only lasts for 30 minutes free use! Or that it’s only given out if the person orders a meal

I belong to a retirement group and we used to have our committee meetings in the cafe of a local garden centre. We always booked first, had coffee on arrival and lunch when meeting over - approximately twenty-four coffees and twelve lunches for the owners.

Me too situpstraight! I’d hav3 no qualms.
I was in a coffe shop the other day with my Husband and a three way business meeting was going on, planning and discussing the whole lot, I thought it was pretty awful and wondered how it was tolerated!
So it seems its the norm these days then ....

A friend with a learning disabled adult daughter was shocked to be asked by the house manager, from where her daughter lives, to meet with the house manager, a psychologist and a care worker in a Museum Cafe to have an informal meeting about her daughter. She didn’t want to say no, so attended with the ‘team’ but worried all through the meeting about confidentiality. Plus they were there for well over an hour with just one cup of tea each.

It feels like cost saving for care organisation and very, very poor practice. My friend has said that she won’t allow this to happen another time. I completely agree with her. ?

Last evening I went out for supper with H and D to a local pub , and was so pleased to see a sign outside the door saying Laptop Free Zone ( during busy hours), and a comment ' Not Everyone enjoys a working lunch'. Bravo that establishment!

The other version of this is the people who take up tables in reading rooms of research libraries, not to read books that are only accessible there, but in order to work online!

Most research libraries have put a stop to that. I imagine any café or restaurant could do the same, after all they are losing business if those who want to eat and drink there cannot get a table.

I took my 6 year old grandson out for his tea last week, to a place where you wait to be seated. I was surprised to be shown to a table set for 4, even though there were plenty of smaller tables for 2.

Same situation when I was with my grandson. Table was full of paperwork, so we sat down, I gave GS some crayons and said "Now try not to crayon on that man's papers." The man in question looked up sharply, and I smiled sweetly and said, "Any piece of paper is drawing paper to him!" and laughed.

And poof! He was gone!

If I was in your position, I would have had a word with the cafe manager. It's unacceptable behaviour. I'd also have e-mailed the company's HO, asking if they would make it company policy not to allow workers to use cafe tables as workstations.

Well done from me too Sarah if the staff aren’t capable then we have to sort stuff ourselves

Good for you, sara!

The only staff in the cafe we used to visit are temporary polish girls. All very nice and working hard but with no clout. The owner is known to my DD so I passed on our displeasure to her that way. We haven't been back so don't know if things have changed.
I like the idea of just sitting with one and telling them all about my day or bringing along my 4 year old blether grandson.

This behaviour is on the increase and establishments need to put their foot down as these persons are not there, from what I have observed, to 'spend.'
My own experience of this 'attitude' was when a friend asked me to accompany her and her four year old grandson into town as she was going to let him help her ?chose a present for his mothers birthday. Exhausted phew! we headed for the nearest café for a' extra large coffee and Danish fix' and milkshake for grandson. We counted three tables used as an 'office'.No option, busy café, but to sit at one of these. Good move as it was clear the guy on his laptop did not appreciate a non stop ' chatty' four year old and with a glare aimed at the child slammed it shut and left .

Did you mention it to the proprietor, Jane10 - and other posters? If not then the situation that so many find unattractive will just continue.

There's a cafe that we used to meet in for lunch but now avoid due to all the tables being taken place by students on their own using laptops. Just one cup in front of them. We (my pal and I) like to have a really good lunch and a glass of something. The cafe certainly lost our business and probably that of many others. Their loss. There's lots of competition in central Edinburgh.

Maybe he was waiting for someone and they were going to have lunch.

Ask the staff to find you a seat.