Southern Europe, Spain in particular, is in uproar over Digital Nomads in cafes, EuroNews reports.

In Riga, where we are based, it is also rapidly becoming a thing. Digital Nomads or Exchange Students occupying an entire four person table, with their laptop and sit for a whole day on only one Latte. (Seriously, who can go a whole day on only one Latte?)

The phenomenon is dubbed Laptop Squatters. Anyone with a reasonable amount of processing power between their ears, will realise that no cafe can exist on selling 20 coffees in the morning, only to have their entire seating occupied until closing time, but as with many other problems in life, it is a collective effort to solve this. If you are a Digital Nomad or Remote Worker, it starts with common sense. You and your work cannot keep a cafe alive, and it is not their problem you have said yes to some application submission job or data entry task, that only pays 20$ a day. If you can't afford the Digital Nomad lifestyle, maybe stay at home until you can? I know it is a tough sell, now that you have filled your Insta with pictures of you living the digital dream in sunny Spain, but honestly, if you keep being a cheapskate, there won't be any cafes to sit in at the end of the day.

Of course there was an immediate backlash from the digital community. One X user pointing out that people also sit in a cafe and read a book for a whole day and why that was not a problem too, then. Here is why I think it is different: Reading is recreative. Work is work. Sitting behind the laptop, with your headphones on, having meetings and focusing is in essence anti-social. Reading is social, because while you have the book out, there is a slight potential that someone seeing you reading that particular book, will spark a conversation. 

So go to a cafe to be social, that is an important part of being a Digital Nomad too. Leave the laptop and work in your AirBnB.

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio: https://www.pexels.com/photo/man-holding-mug-in-front-of-laptop-842548/