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[Misc] Teams / Zoom in cafes



portlock seagull

Well-known member
Jul 28, 2003
17,931
I quite enjoy going for breakfast/coffee of a morning on my days off, with friends or happy to go solo. It’s nice, relaxing.

Increasingly I find myself having to move tables or even down my coffee and leave the whole place.

Why?

People having full on work zoom or teams meetings.

It’s so annoying. They seem to revel in talking loudly about their boring jobs.
Lots of “hey guys, I wanted to touch base on this as I feel blah blah”

I just had to move downstairs in my favourite cafe because upstairs is rammed with people in teeny beanies holding laptop meetings. A cacophony. Upstairs used to be chilled and quiet away from the yoga mums and labradoodles .

On the bus on the way here three teens at the back playing some noisy tv program on their phone and yelling and jumping to whatever it was that was happening on their program. I mean screaming like 12 ye old girls. They were 16/17 ye old lads.

Does everyone treat the world like it’s their own front room now? “I’ll do what I like and you’ll just have to poke up with it”

It seems every whim or requirement of every one is catered for these days unless you just want a bit of decorum?

Increasingly I just want to move to the middle of nowhere and get away from all this noise.

In fairness, though I’d not do, it’s just conversation so what difference does it make if that’s is part online?
 






PascalGroß Tips

Well-known member
Jan 29, 2024
682
Well, they can get in the sea, along with any disrespectful, noisy customers.

I'll regularly sit on my own in a coffee shop while my wife is shopping, and browse my iPad, or watch some sport - always with no sound. Any place that somehow thought that was a problem to anyone, can get f***ed.
I would hope that any coffee shop would have no problem with you doing just that.

I think some places - quite understandably in my view - have an issue with some customers using them as a substitute for a free workplace. I often see a table for 4 taken up by one person with a laptop out and paperwork all over the table ... possibly sat there for some time having bought just one drink. As is often the case, it's the small minority that spoil it for the rest of us.
 


portlock seagull

Well-known member
Jul 28, 2003
17,931
I have noticed a few cafe's / coffee houses are now displaying a 'no iPad's or laptops' notices stating that these are a no, no between certain hours. I think that's a good way forward if you are a business as me thinks one's takings must be down if someone is taking up valuable space but not purchasing goods? It also encourages loyal customers who, like you Clamp want the ambience of a cafe and enjoy it for what it is.

Their prerogative but lose customers in this day and age at your peril!
 






portlock seagull

Well-known member
Jul 28, 2003
17,931
Starbucks/Costa/Nero/Pret etc where someone has taken a 4-seat table to themselves, (maybe) bought one drink, plugged their laptop and phone charger into the building sockets/power supply, and proceeded to sit there for hours and hours on end, no matter how busy the place gets around them…
And you think they’ve not costed this in?!! It’s why independents are often a pound cheaper per unit. Nah, the chains are doing ok me thinks
 


portlock seagull

Well-known member
Jul 28, 2003
17,931
I have genuinely asked myself the same question and I simply don’t know. It just is 🤣

I work in Costa from time to time. I’m there for a set period, doing stuff I can do without thinking too much. And I always purchase a couple of drinks ie conscious it’s a business and needs to make money. I wouldn’t dare spend hours there. Moreover want to. Nor would I consider a meeting online in respect of colleagues because of all the background noise. I do see others doing the complete opposite as you’ve observed and really do wonder!
 


Chicken Run

Member Since Jul 2003
NSC Patron
Jul 17, 2003
19,966
Valley of Hangleton
I quite enjoy going for breakfast/coffee of a morning on my days off, with friends or happy to go solo. It’s nice, relaxing.

Increasingly I find myself having to move tables or even down my coffee and leave the whole place.

Why?

People having full on work zoom or teams meetings.

It’s so annoying. They seem to revel in talking loudly about their boring jobs.
Lots of “hey guys, I wanted to touch base on this as I feel blah blah”

I just had to move downstairs in my favourite cafe because upstairs is rammed with people in teeny beanies holding laptop meetings. A cacophony. Upstairs used to be chilled and quiet away from the yoga mums and labradoodles .

On the bus on the way here three teens at the back playing some noisy tv program on their phone and yelling and jumping to whatever it was that was happening on their program. I mean screaming like 12 ye old girls. They were 16/17 ye old lads.

Does everyone treat the world like it’s their own front room now? “I’ll do what I like and you’ll just have to poke up with it”

It seems every whim or requirement of every one is catered for these days unless you just want a bit of decorum?

Increasingly I just want to move to the middle of nowhere and get away from all this noise.
I’m with you, i hate WFH types, why? Well because they don’t actually stay at home during work hours do they!
 






amexer

Well-known member
Aug 8, 2011
6,915
All for eating healthier but when I want an occasional breakfast or just a bacon sarnie find so many cafes have not selling this and it is all Quiches and carrot cake
 


Sid and the Sharknados

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Sep 4, 2022
5,868
Darlington
That’s not my issue
I didn't suggest it was.
In fairness, though I’d not do, it’s just conversation so what difference does it make if that’s is part online?
I think people talk differently when they're on the phone. Not sure if it's as straightforward as it being louder, but it definitely grates in a way that some people having the same conversation in person wouldn't.
 




Peteinblack

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Jun 3, 2004
4,175
Bath, Somerset.
Problem is that the selfish anti-social twunts who play loud music or videos on a train or bus are also probably the chavvy types who'll turn aggressive if you ask them, however politely, to turn it down; they'll either tell you to 'F*** off to another carriage", challenge you to "make me turn it down, pal, just try it", or pull a knife on you.

Same with shouting/screeching teenagers on public transport - I always reckon they are deliberately trying to provoke a reaction as an accuse to turn aggressive or violent.

Partly through conflict-averse cowardice, and partly through fear, I invariably sit there quietly seething with anger - and then afterwards, further seethe with anger that I did not say anything!

The older I get, the more I dislike humanity; individual people can be lovely, but people in general I increasingly despise.
 


el punal

Well-known member
Aug 29, 2012
12,606
The dull part of the south coast
My take on selfish arseholes playing annoying noise :

My grandson and I were on the train from Liverpool back to Euston, after our 2-2 with Liverpool a couple of seasons ago. We sat with a load of Reds fans who were friendly and chatted to us about all things football - except one. He decided to put on his ghetto blaster/boom box/sound system/whatever at full blast with Liverpool songs. I asked him to turn it down and he promptly told me to f*** off and said he’d do what he f***ing liked.

It was at this point that one of his mates told me that this knob ‘had a lot of problems’ and also tried to convince him to turn it down. A lady, a Liverpool fan, also told f***wit to do likewise and had a load of abuse in return. In fact the whole carriage by then were ganging up on him and eventually he gave up and just sulked. Peace at last!

One of the good things that came out of this little fracas were two Brighton fans who were present came up to me and said “We all stick together, we’ve got your back, no one has a go at one of our own.” Now that’s team spirit! :thumbsup:
 


el punal

Well-known member
Aug 29, 2012
12,606
The dull part of the south coast
Problem is that the selfish anti-social twunts who play loud music or videos on a train or bus are also probably the chavvy types who'll turn aggressive if you ask them, however politely, to turn it down; they'll either tell you to 'F*** off to another carriage", challenge you to "make me turn it down, pal, just try it", or pull a knife on you.

Same with shouting/screeching teenagers on public transport - I always reckon they are deliberately trying to provoke a reaction as an accuse to turn aggressive or violent.

Partly through conflict-averse cowardice, and partly through fear, I invariably sit there quietly seething with anger - and then afterwards, further seethe with anger that I did not say anything!

The older I get, the more I dislike humanity; individual people can be lovely, but people in general I increasingly despise.
I’ve just seen a job ad for a lighthouse keeper - worth a punt? :lolol:
 




Sid and the Sharknados

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Sep 4, 2022
5,868
Darlington
My take on selfish arseholes playing annoying noise :

My grandson and I were on the train from Liverpool back to Euston, after our 2-2 with Liverpool a couple of seasons ago. We sat with a load of Reds fans who were friendly and chatted to us about all things football - except one. He decided to put on his ghetto blaster/boom box/sound system/whatever at full blast with Liverpool songs. I asked him to turn it down and he promptly told me to f*** off and said he’d do what he f***ing liked.

It was at this point that one of his mates told me that this knob ‘had a lot of problems’ and also tried to convince him to turn it down. A lady, a Liverpool fan, also told f***wit to do likewise and had a load of abuse in return. In fact the whole carriage by then were ganging up on him and eventually he gave up and just sulked. Peace at last!

One of the good things that came out of this little fracas were two Brighton fans who were present came up to me and said “We all stick together, we’ve got your back, no one has a go at one of our own.” Now that’s team spirit! :thumbsup:
To be honest, it sounds like the Liverpool fans there were doing a lot more to back you up than the two Brighton fans.
 




VAL1850

Well-known member
Nov 22, 2008
2,038
Beachy Head & WSU
Trains used to be likes this...


IMG_20241113_131714.jpg
 










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