Please Remove Your Laptop From The Coffee Shop
Coffee shops are meant to be community spaces, not offices
I headed into a coffee/sandwich shop for an early lunch. The place was busy, with all 25-ish tables occupied. Those of us in line looked for a space to sit once our order was ready.
A few tables were filled with people eating, drinking, and socializing. But many others had one person sitting there, deeply focused on their laptop.
I managed to find a high stool to perch on. As I ate, I watched. The laptop people all had a single coffee in front of them that they sipped sporadically. While I don’t know how long they’d been there, their focus on whatever they were working on suggested it had been a while. One had papers spread all over the table. Another guy was actually taking a Zoom call in headphones.
I wouldn’t write about this incident if it were the first time it had happened. But I can think of three similar occasions in the last year. All at different coffee shops in various parts of the city.
That’s pretty remarkable considering I don’t even drink joe so I’m rarely in coffee shops.
A few months ago I walked into a high-end coffee shop for a meeting. It has only six tables, and they’re set up in a line. That made it easy for me to spot…
