Increasingly, professionals are using cafes as a separate space to work, but there are some inherent concerns with sitting in a coffee house while on the clock.
Free Wi-Fi, friendly environment, and quick access to caffeine is attracting more workers to use cafés as a separate office space, research from flexible workspace provider Regus has shown.
While 52% of baby boomers deem meetings in cafés unprofessional, only 45% of Gen X and 38% of Gen Y feel the same, shifting to getting work done while sitting in a comfy chair with a cappuccino at hand.
“Although working from your nearest café may sound tempting … there are some serious issues to consider for management when asking your employees to work on the road,” Jacqueline Lehmann, country head of Regus Australia, said.
Australian employees highlighted a number of concerns they had when working in cafés. Most commonly, there were concerns over the privacy of conversations and documents (79%) as well as being unable to leave equipment and personal belongings unattended (77%). Broken down, other concerns included:
-
The conversations of others disturbing productivity (66%)
-
Difficulty in making phone calls (61%)
-
Difficulties in accessing office equipment (60%)
-
Unreliable internet (56%)
-
Lack of access to company documents (48%)
-
Unprofessional location for client meetings (41%)
-
Difficulty concentrating on work issues (37%)
-
Bad diet due to temptation of food and coffee (36%)
-
Bad posture (33%)
-
Inability to video-conference (33%)
- Bad or unreliable telephone reception (25%)
“Respondents to this survey made it quite clear that coffee shops are not the most effective place for them to work. With 72% of companies globally saying that flexible working is helping them to be more productive – this study raises concerns for both managers and their employees,” Lehmann said.
The concern in using coffee shops and other similar areas as a place for work clashes with the flexible work arrangements that some employers encourage.
“It’s about far more than giving them a ‘home office’ allowance or implementing a “bring your own device” scheme,” Lehmann said. “You need to provide people with realistic options and alternatives, such as professional hot-desking spaces near to where they live.”
