“Here it appears again, that endless arrogance”

Readers wonder how long they can sit in a cafe for the price of one cup of coffee. Illustration image. Adobe Stock / AOP

Iltalehti reported at the end of November that the Helsinki-based St George Bakery limits its customers’ laptop use during lunchtime.

We asked readers what they think about the coffee shop’s remote work restriction and in general about customers who work remotely in coffee shops. The majority of respondents welcomed the ban and said they fully understood St George Bakery’s decision. Many respondents thought about the matter especially from the entrepreneur’s point of view.

– It’s great that the problem is being tackled! It’s incomprehensible that adults don’t understand or care about other people’s livelihoods. Running a coffee shop is not providing a free office service. In our own cafe, the phenomenon was clearly visible and the worst were Sundays with double pay and expense days. The laptop gang took the best vantage points to stare at their screen. Parasols were also taken over so that the work went smoothly, writes the nickname Nälätä selunen.

– It’s pretty rude to do your work in a cafe, i.e. treat the cafe as your own office. Läppäri people nail themselves to the cafe for several hours and thus limit the seats. It is unlikely that they will spend very much even on cafeteria food, many of them sit for hours at their laptops next to a cup of tea. Tells about selfish people and a pretty stupid train of thought that doesn’t understand what the entrepreneur intends to use his coffee shop for. Pity the entrepreneurs, says the moniker Tolkutonta menoa.

– Here it appears again, that endless arrogance and selfishness. Personally, I wouldn’t even think of sitting for hours in cafes buying a small coffee to get a seat. Especially someone who is sloppy in a public place shows a lack of situational awareness.

– Really disturbing. Sometimes you see people who sit with just a small cup of coffee in the classroom working on a laptop. When I walk past the same dome an hour and a half later, I still see the guy working there. The restaurant must be allowed to sell products to customers. Seats cannot be booked for several hours for the price of a coffee. And in my opinion, a restaurant is not a workplace, writes JP.

– Limiting the use of a laptop is definitely a good thing. You often see that a small coffee is bought and a table is reserved for several hours, in which case the entrepreneur only gets the price of one cup from the customer and takes a seat from other customers. A very good decision, Mirkkis writes.

A time limit for sitting in a cafe?

Several readers suggested a time limit for sitting in a cafe or lunch place at a time.

– I think it is unreasonable to sit for several hours in cafes working on a laptop. There should be some change to this, for example a time limit, which could be a maximum of 1–2 hours. Outside employees who work in the cafe for a long time take away the seats of potential customers and thus also the income of the cafe’s entrepreneur.

– Laptop users don’t really disturb, but they sit for hours with the laptop and others can’t fit. One person at a table of 2 or 4 drinks one coffee for several hours. In Oulu, you could also set a time limit of 15 minutes on your laptop. We usually go elsewhere for coffee, eat salty and sweet. Cafe owners lose money when paying customers can’t sit down.

The peaceful atmosphere is disturbed

Some of the respondents said that they were disturbed by fellow customers tapping on their laptops.

– I go to the cafe to escape the constant clicking of the laptop in the office and relax. Nowadays, however, it often feels like you’ve just moved to another office in coffee shops. Listening to aggressive and loud beeping raises the stress level, opens the brand Kahvit koten.

– The loud operation of Teams meetings is really annoying. An absolute ban, at least for lunchtime. Nowadays, people talk too loudly, ignoring others nearby. I don’t use my laptop in cafes.

– Yes, everyone who comes for coffee or lunch has earned a moment of silence and peace, including the coffee drinker with a laptop. I can’t say why a person comes there with a laptop. Is it proof of effectiveness or what but it is completely unnecessary. A very welcome reform, writes Peace Lover.

The fact that there is no room for lunch or coffee if the place is full of remote workers using computers also caused irritation.

– The laptop ban is an excellent thing. A cafe is not an office. I’d like to linger over tea and cake often, but many times I don’t go when I notice at the door that many tables are reserved for work space. Sometimes, due to lack of space, I have “stuck” to the same table, but the situation has been awkward. There are remote work stations in the center for short periods even free of charge, writes a convert from Ove.

– Yes, it’s disturbing, they take up a lot of space on the tables. I would like to eat sitting at the table and not standing at a small standing table