The Local: “‘They are squatters’: Are Paris cafés right to clamp down on laptop users?”

I’m not against laptops, but I am against the minority of users who will sit down for four or five hours, with the cheapest drink. That’s not respectful to the space, so the decision came about because of those few who do that. We call them squatters, he says.

We make less revenue at the end of the month, because the business costs are higher, Jeff says, adding that Fringe is not a co-working space.

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The Dancing Goat’s policy is to allow laptops during the week, but not on the weekends. Aaricia, a barista and the head of The Dancing Goat’s social media presence, said that this comes down to the energy of the place.

On the weekends, we want to be able to welcome families, children and grandparents she said.

Aaricia sees the no-laptops-on-the-weekends rule to be a fair middle ground – allowing the many people who work remotely a place to come on the weekdays, while offering a more “energetic” and inclusive space on the weekends.

Genevieve Mansfield

The growing popularity of remote work is causing interesting social changes, some more obvious, some less expected. And naturally some are also pushing back against these new behaviors. In this particular case I tend to side with the owners who seek to restrict remote work in their shops, since it makes little business sense for them to allow people to occupy a spot for hours, when they could instead have dozens of customers in the same time span. One might reorganize things to be more accommodating for remote workers, but that would probably require a shift in the business model, perhaps an extra charge for renting a seat for a certain amount of hours, access to faster Wi-Fi, and so on.

Photo credit: The Local

Personally I never understood the appeal of working in a public space such as a coffee shop; if I wanted to spend hours working in a cramped, crowded and noisy place I would just return to the office! Not to mention the pitfalls of sending business data over public networks with uncertain security, or talking about critical matters in a place where anyone might eavesdrop. If you need a break and change of scenery, just take time off, go for a walk or a coffee, allow yourself to unwind and take your mind off job issues.