Come and telecommute at the café to avoid paying for electricity at home. More and more Brussels residents are deciding to adopt this technique, in a country very affected by inflation – 11% recorded in September – and in particular an explosion in the price of gas and electricity.
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But this trend is far from being to the liking of all coffee shop owners. “It’s called table squatters!”, annoys Eric Robert, owner of a large café in the Saint-Gilles district, in Brussels. “They come all day with their PC, their backpack. Often it’s people who have a drink and who are going to stay four or five hours“, he explains. His establishment, with its wooded, cozy and pleasant decoration, lends itself well to teleworking, and this kind of behavior did not really cause him any problems a few weeks ago.
Today Eric Robert claims to be a victim of his own success. “We had an overflow for a few weeks. We ended up two weeks ago with 45 PCs plugged into this place.he observes. People who wanted to eat had no more room.”
“There are more PCs than people eating, it’s not possible.”
Eric Robertat franceinfo
For him, the reason for this migration of teleworkers from their living room to the café is beyond doubt. With the rise in the price of electricity, which has almost doubled in one year, its customers want above all to save money. “When they are asked the question: ‘Are you there long?’ They tell us ‘yes, we come to spend the day and work here, it’s nicer than at home’ and it’s obviously cheaper”, says the boss. So he made a decision:We have from crack down.“
To crack down is first of all to try to wear down the teleworker. To do this, Eric Robert has significantly increased the volume of the music playing constantly in the cafe, with the idea of discouraging it, even if it becomes difficult to speak and concentrate. But some have found the parade and put a helmet on the ears.
Another weapon used by the boss: cut WiFi and internet connections! But he finally changed his mind and chose pedagogy. Starting at 11 a.m., staff warned customers that computers are prohibited between noon and 3 p.m. A measure that is not always understood by customers. “For me, it was a place that was conducive to that, I didn’t really understand“, Céline confides, a little surprised. “We had planned to eat here, but we will leave“, adds Caroline, a telework colleague. The boss, he remains straight in his boots: his electricity and gas bill has also increased sharply. It has gone from 2,000 to 6,000 euros per month in one year.
A Brussels café owner annoyed by the influx of telework – The report by Jean-Jacques Héry
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