Surely it's not right? Bloke near us today with a posh voice using big words (probs off here) havung an important sounding zoom meeting. It can't be right surely?
Thinking
Privacy
Concentration
Actually being the right environment??
It would annoy me if someone was having one. And I'd not want to have one as I'd feel a nuisance to other cafe goers and maybe have confidentiality issues.
Is it just me, but if I even got a phone call (personal or work) in a cafe I'd either go out side to take it or call them back later?
It’s not, though I have done it at least once.
I imagine the people who own the cafe are less than impressed if someone is sat there sponging off their wifi for an hour and a half having bought one coffee?
I imagine the people who own the cafe are less than impressed if someone is sat there sponging off their wifi for an hour and a half having bought one coffee?
I know of a few cafes, mainly independents, which have a No Laptop rule to stop this exact thing.
Personal video chats in cafés? No problem. Just as annoying as that bloke on a cellphone.
Work video chats in a public space? No! Way!
Nope. Had many teams calls in the van and under bridges.
What's the issue here?
Their own confidentiality / whatever, that's on them.
Their impact on everyone else? Were they excessively loud?
Depends on the cafe really.
One near me encourage it. Gets people through the door for for breakfast and a couple of drinks and most folks don't stay more than a couple of hours.
Not much different to people having face to face meetings in cafes.
I was sat in Woods cyclery the other week, working but having bought 2 coffees, a cake and a sandwich over about 2 hours and keeping well out the way on a quiet Thursday, making sure I wasn’t using up a multi person table. Guy, probably off here, comes and sits next to me at the bar window seat, has to move a Frog bike off the display to do so and proceeds to join a group Zoom call right up next to me (thank god for good AirPods). Has one coffee and then leaves having properly pissed off not only me, but most of the rest of the shop/cafe. No! Not on. I don’t have an issue with working in cafes as long as your coffee consumption is appropriate to the time you are there and you don’t take up a table over lunch service, but not a zoom call, let alone 3” away from someone else!
We are not allowed to use public wifi for work, to have a meeting in a public place like a cafe would be gross misconduct.
Have a meeting every Monday morning a participant of which often joins from a train 🤷
Surely it depends on a person's job.
I don't pretend to have an important job or deal with sensitive information. Most of my meetings seem to involve deeply technical nerds talking in ultra-obscure terms and I'm lucky if I manage to stay awake while they drone on...
And people can talk loudly or hog a table/chair for too long whether they are talking in person to the mother or friend or kids or whatever, or on personal phone calls...🤷
less than impressed if someone is sat there sponging off their wifi for an hour and a half having bought one coffee?
Isn't that just the same as pretty much everyone else who goes into a coffee shop?
Have a meeting every Monday morning a participant of which often joins from a train
I would be pleased a colleague uses public transport.
I regularly call and Teams from the train on my travels.
Thinking, Concentration
Two things that never happen in a Teams meeting. Pretending to pay attention whilst watching the other monitor and trying to type whilst looking like you aren’t. That’s 99% of every Teams meeting I’ve ever attended.
I’m not even allowed to have Alexa listen to my work calls, public cafe would be a no, no for me. What exactly work think Amazon is going to do with me talking rubbish for 8 hours a day I do not know.
Just wander up, reach out by suggesting a mission critical deep dive to find low hanging fruit by ringfencing the unicorn, then circle back to your own table.
I once sat in a cafe opposite a woman on a lengthy Skype call who for reasons I can’t really fathom was awkwardly holding her laptop like an enormous comedy flip phone
screen to her ear, talking into the keyboard
Have a meeting every Monday morning a participant of which often joins from a train 🤷
We had people joining Teams meetings while driving. This made me… nervous.
We had people joining Teams meetings while driving.
We have this when we run webinars and training.
Anyone doing so is booted out the meeting immediately.
So exactly where are you supposed to go if you are out & about via public transport & need to join a teams meeting? I visit numerous mostly building sites in London & generally travel by tube, luckily I have very few teams meetings..
So exactly where are you supposed to go if you are out & about via public transport & need to join a teams meeting?<br /><br />
The Tower!
It seems really wrong and it’s really annoying. But I wouldn’t want to have to justify my opinion
I'll justify it for you. They are dickheads with no respect for anyone around them.
joining Teams meetings while driving
dismissible offence in my company. Unless you are in the back.
I've had an occasional meeting in a coffee shop. Always on headphones and a phone, not a laptop. Normally because I am off work, or at some conference and work happens. I’m always discrete. Teams filters background noise and voices effectively. Including overhead aircraft from home.
A whole thread for this? Grosse outlandishness!
A proper cafe shouldn’t have Wi-Fi . A few tabloids, maybe a radio on and food which is mostly fried. Large beakfast menu and a selection of lunches / dinners that nobody really bothers with. Tea, coffee or a tin of coke, no variations on coffee.
If you’re going to somewhere poncy expect ponces.
Cafes around here aren’t bothered and even advertised people to work from them as it’s business for them. No issue for me if you’re not loud and use headphones.
I’ve done them sat in the car before and it’s horrible, rather use a cafe.
It's tolerable if they are quiet and discrete. If they lack the self awareness or manners to moderate their volume and inflict the dullness of their jobs on other customers then they're ****s. If I was a cafe owner though I think it would irritate me and I'd be tempted to take a tougher line. Pull the wifi plug if they stayed for yonks sipping a long cold coffee. Or not even providing wifi in the first place. I can't see most cafe customers who are primarily there for coffee/cake rather than free office space being too upset by that.
The Tower!
Oddly enough a couple of my jobs were there earlier this year 😃
What’s the issue here?
......
Their impact on everyone else? Were they excessively loud?
Pretty much this. Yes, some people can't moderate their voice level in public but that's the same with people physically together in a cafe too. Or is it the one way nature (as in if they are using headphones you can't hear the other side of the conversation) that makes it annoying as it's a more intermittent noise rather than continuous back and forth background noise you can tune out.
Yes, people can be unaware and inconsiderate of their surroundings but others can be a bit oversensitive too.
My new post COVID reality are online parents' meetings. The number of parents who try and have their meetings whilst driving is pretty high. Or drunk - that's quite popular. Thankfully not both at the same time yet!
If they lack the self awareness or manners to moderate their volume
I have the same issue with folk having conversations with other folk sitting at the same table. Surely everybody should be sat in complete silence?
I have the same issue with folk having conversations with other folk sitting at the same table. Surely everybody should be sat in complete silence?
People having a face to face chat is different imo. A low burble of background conversation is normal, pleasant even. Somehow, two people having a conversation over a coffee seem to naturally be a bit more aware of their impact on others around them than someone on a phone or talking at a laptop. Dunno why, there's probably an interesting social experiment in there for someone. I think the one sided nature of what you're hearing is part of it too. I can't fully explain why, but I just find it really irritating!
A quick google suggests there is some science behind one sided conversations being more distracting.... https://www.cio.com/article/298862/consumer-technology-why-overhearing-one-side-of-cell-phone-calls-is-bad-for-you.html#:~:text=The%20researchers%20found%20that%20those,the%20unwilling%20participants%20quite%20irritated.
A quick google suggests there is some science behind one sided conversations being more distracting
You've met my wife then?
Remember having to work in offices? This is what it was like all day, except the coffee sucked.
Just wander up, reach out by suggesting a mission critical deep dive to find low hanging fruit by ringfencing the unicorn, then circle back to your own table.
Or stand behind them and quietly start undressing...
I've done it in the past when out and about, both in cafes and quiet pubs.
Grab a drink, fine a quiet corner, bang the headset on and you're away.
I normally hotspot to my phone as it's quicker but no issues using cafe/pub WiFi as work laptop always has a VPN on and I'm pretty confident the owners aren't on dialup paying by the minute for their internet.
Would it be more acceptable if it was an overpriced Costa or Starbucks at a service station?
@turboflard in a suburb and small/niche
Or stand behind them and quietly start undressing…
A mate of mine who is a bit of a nutter has a great technique to keep a bit of space around him on busy commuter trains. When someone walks along the carriage looking for a seat, he winks at them, pats the seat next to him then licks his lips. No one sits next to him!
No one sits next to him!
*Winks back, sits down and snuggles up*
When double bluffing goes wrong....
