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As a sometimes nomad myself I have to agree with the cafe and bar owners. Almost every coffee shop in the popular areas of Bangkok and Chiang Mai fill up with
by gregjor 2y ago
As a sometimes nomad myself I have to agree with the cafe and bar owners.
Almost every coffee shop in the popular areas of Bangkok and Chiang Mai fill up with DNs and wantrapreneurs who sit for hours, ordering one coffee every few hours, running charging cords to the outlets, talking on the phone, editing videos with the sound on. They don't engage with each other, the staff, or the "locals" as they call them. They squat in a place of business and don't respect the spirit of a cafe, coffee shop, restaurant, or bar. I see them in McDonald's in Bangkok, taking up seats that could accommodate four people, headphones on, hunched over a laptop, for hours at a time.
The places digital nomads tend to visit in numbers have co-working spaces, hotels and hostels that have wifi and tables, short-term apartment rentals with wifi -- plenty of places to work. I don't think DNs should shift the costs of doing their business onto cafes and coffee shops that exist to serve coffee and food, not to serve as free hotdesks.
As happens more often than not, the selfish actions of a few will cause a backlash that affects everyone. Someone wanting to check their email for ten minutes over a cup of coffee can't get their laptop out now because too many entitled DNs sat there for hours, mistaking generosity and tolerance for approval.
- yunwal 2y agoAre cafes not allowed to set limits on how long people can stay at their tables? I don’t understand how this can possibly be a problem
- doubleg72 2y agoThey shouldn’t have to… people should have respect
- gregjor 2y agoSome do that. Until recently people understood that you sat in a cafe or restaurant while you enjoyed your meal or coffee, and then left. If you did want to sit there talking with friends or reading you would leave if the place got crowded and customers stood around waiting for a table to free up. Now those unwritten conventions of behavior don't get learned, or some people actively ignore them. I've seen staff politely ask people to leave to free up a table in the US, but in Asia staff frequently don't want to cause a confrontation, and may not speak English well enough to feel comfortable asking people to leave. So you see the staff in Thailand glancing nervously at the DNs hogging tables for hours, loudly talking on their phones, and getting away with it in a culture that mostly honors social conventions and avoids conflict.