4 ms·

Personally the local coffee shop has always been the best meeting room. Don't have a local coffee shop? Move offices

c12 3y ago
haha, many years ago when I worked in a large office the three meeting rooms where constantly busy so my team would grab a laptop and pop down the road to the pub for our meetings.
- lifeisstillgood 3y ago
  Much harder to justify on the expenses claims report :-)
  - yieldcrv 3y ago
    these days
- xnorswap 3y ago
  The pub lunch is the thing I miss most about my first job. Every Friday almost the entire office would decamp down to a local pub for lunch and a pint or two. The quality of the food was always very hit-or-miss (unless we went down the king's arms*, but that was seen as a bit pricey and fancy), and for many places if there were too many of us would get arsey for not booking ahead. But it was a great opportunity to just hear what everyone was up to and have a good chat in an unstructured way. I don't know if it's changing attitudes over the past 20 years, the particular companies I found myself at, the price of going to the pub, but it hasn't really been a thing at any of my places since. Now with WFH of course there is a complete absence of unstructured conversation. Every meeting has a purpose, every interaction there's something someone has in mind they want from the conversation. And while it's not impossible to chit chat still, it is impossible to overhear chit-chat, which is an underappreciated thing. Overheard conversations are a gold mine of knowledge sharing, many an interesting idea has come about because, "I couldn't help but overhear...". Now don't get me wrong, I don't want to suffer an hour long commute for that benefit, the cost-benefit skews all wrong. But I would like if everyone lived a 5 minute walk from the office. * might have been the king's head, memory plays tricks.
  - _nalply 3y ago
    I am Deaf. I never ever have overheard anything. That's a serious handicap if there are many people thinking random unstructured conversation is important.
    - xnorswap 3y ago
      I'm sure most people would agree that deafness is a serious handicap.
    - onetokeoverthe 3y ago
      [dead]
  - euroderf 3y ago
    > a complete absence of unstructured conversation So you replaced "watercooler talk" with "beercooler" talk. Sounds enlightened.
    - xnorswap 3y ago
      It's the lack of "watercooler talk" due to WFH that I'm referring to. The whole post wasn't just about the pub, it segued into what's missing from WFH.
      - euroderf 3y ago
        Sorry if I sounded sarcastic. That was not my intention.
  - gemstones 3y ago
    Living a 5 minute walk from the office is how most humans have lived throughout history, and what most of Europe’s most pleasant cities to live in were designed to support. I know tech changes things, but if I had to guess, the era we just lived through was the weird one, and living a 5 minute walk away from work and amenities is the norm we’ll revert back to the moment that tech adequately supports it.
  - 3y ago
kashyapc 3y ago
While I love working from coffee shops, one thing I really get grumpy about is people taking meetings out loud. If you're taking a meeting from a quiet corner while not disturbing others, it's fine. What drives me up the wall is people sitting at a large community table or sitting in the vicinity of many others and speaking loudly. It's elementary common sense to not do that. Mercifully, it doesn't happen too many times. (I'm located in Belgium; so the real-estate is usually small in coffee shops.)

c12 3y ago

haha, many years ago when I worked in a large office the three meeting rooms where constantly busy so my team would grab a laptop and pop down the road to the pub for our meetings.

lifeisstillgood 3y ago
Much harder to justify on the expenses claims report :-)
- yieldcrv 3y ago
  these days
xnorswap 3y ago
The pub lunch is the thing I miss most about my first job. Every Friday almost the entire office would decamp down to a local pub for lunch and a pint or two. The quality of the food was always very hit-or-miss (unless we went down the king's arms*, but that was seen as a bit pricey and fancy), and for many places if there were too many of us would get arsey for not booking ahead. But it was a great opportunity to just hear what everyone was up to and have a good chat in an unstructured way. I don't know if it's changing attitudes over the past 20 years, the particular companies I found myself at, the price of going to the pub, but it hasn't really been a thing at any of my places since. Now with WFH of course there is a complete absence of unstructured conversation. Every meeting has a purpose, every interaction there's something someone has in mind they want from the conversation. And while it's not impossible to chit chat still, it is impossible to overhear chit-chat, which is an underappreciated thing. Overheard conversations are a gold mine of knowledge sharing, many an interesting idea has come about because, "I couldn't help but overhear...". Now don't get me wrong, I don't want to suffer an hour long commute for that benefit, the cost-benefit skews all wrong. But I would like if everyone lived a 5 minute walk from the office. * might have been the king's head, memory plays tricks.
- _nalply 3y ago
  I am Deaf. I never ever have overheard anything. That's a serious handicap if there are many people thinking random unstructured conversation is important.
  - xnorswap 3y ago
    I'm sure most people would agree that deafness is a serious handicap.
  - onetokeoverthe 3y ago
    [dead]
- euroderf 3y ago
  > a complete absence of unstructured conversation So you replaced "watercooler talk" with "beercooler" talk. Sounds enlightened.
  - xnorswap 3y ago
    It's the lack of "watercooler talk" due to WFH that I'm referring to. The whole post wasn't just about the pub, it segued into what's missing from WFH.
    - euroderf 3y ago
      Sorry if I sounded sarcastic. That was not my intention.
- gemstones 3y ago
  Living a 5 minute walk from the office is how most humans have lived throughout history, and what most of Europe’s most pleasant cities to live in were designed to support. I know tech changes things, but if I had to guess, the era we just lived through was the weird one, and living a 5 minute walk away from work and amenities is the norm we’ll revert back to the moment that tech adequately supports it.
- 3y ago

kashyapc 3y ago

While I love working from coffee shops, one thing I really get grumpy about is people taking meetings out loud. If you're taking a meeting from a quiet corner while not disturbing others, it's fine. What drives me up the wall is people sitting at a large community table or sitting in the vicinity of many others and speaking loudly. It's elementary common sense to not do that. Mercifully, it doesn't happen too many times. (I'm located in Belgium; so the real-estate is usually small in coffee shops.)