BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

outsourcing office space.

well, to his credit, he thought he was doing me a favor... but I think the deal is pretty much done with the higher ups.

quiet storm. you could rent that for like $3 a day in coffee

Working from coffee shops is a PITA if you're trying to do it 40 hours a week. It's impossible to stay in the flow.

Yes, I have seen advertisements for shared office space. It's usually in incubators and such and is kind of expensive, but every once in a while someone just has some space in a corner of their office that they're trying to bring in a few bucks for. Check out Craigslist.

I do roughly 4-8 hours a week at Morning Glory, and that's pretty quiet. I am very aware of how much time I spend there, though, and try to spend more than just a cup of joe. A lot of cafes are turning off free wifi, or limiting it, because people are turning into their office spaces for $3 a day.

One option may be some of the businesses along Baum Blvd. between Negley and Penn Circle. I worked for a start-up for a long time that shared space with the Big Burrito folks, and it was pretty decent. Might be worth a shot.

I think it's a riot that a restaurant chain shares their sign with the National Prosthetic Limb Company.

i used to have to kill a lot of time in monroeville, and I always went to Panera. They a) are places that WANT you to stay there and are large spaces, so it's not like your taking up one of 4 booths in the restaurant for hours everyday. There are a lot of people who use it as they're office. I would see them every single day, with their computers, drinking coffee in the morning then usually eating lunch or something to compensate for the time. I also saw a lot of people use it for a meeting place (job interview and wedding photographer meet and greet). The longer I planned on staying, the more I bought, even if it was a loaf of bread to take home with me : )

are there coffee shops in pittsburgh that are limiting the amount of time? it seems like they are never full, and coffee shops would want there to be a bunch of people hanging out in there. most people don't want to walk into an empty coffee shop

I don't know of any, erok. Some of them give you two hours of Internet use per beverage, which is an effective limit for many people.

I've not heard of it happening in Pittsburgh, but it is happening elsewhere.

I think it's a shop owner's right to limit things like that (since they are, presumably, providing free wifi). Like I said above, if you can concentrate on your work in such a setting, AND you can buy more than a $1.50 cup of coffee each day, I think it's just fine, as long as the shop has the space. Most Paneras I've been to actually have a "meeting space" segmented from the rest of the space, so obviously they want you to use it.

I heard the 61c was taping over their outlets (ie you can only hangout 1 battery charge)....

This was a few years ago.

i guess the 61c does fill up sometimes.

Before the days of ubiquitous laptops, I used to spend a lot of time at the 61c, and in "those days" it was filled with people reading books or (gasp!) writing in notebooks. I don't laptops are necessarily THE issue, they just exacerbate it.

(Disclaimer: this post written in a coffee house)

i refer to the 61c as the grad student garden. all students w laptops, all the time.

Sorry to be Captain Obvious here, but what about your regular plain old local Carnegie Library branch? Granted you can't carry on cell phone conversations very well, but people have been doing private research in them for >100 years. If you need to make or take a call, step outside or go into the restroom. A couple of them have built-in cafés; many others have an eatery nearby.

Indeed. My wife did most of the work on her thesis in the East Liberty branch because she couldn't focus very well at MoGlo...

and if you feel bad, you can make a donation to them! (they seem to be hurting)

@erok yeah, have you seen the state of the east liberty branch lately?

re: libraries hurting, there is a meeting today at the oakland branch that will decide the fate of some other branches--ie will they close and will people get laid off. rumour is that lawrenceville may be on the cut list...

The die has been cast....and Larry-ville will close when the 'Sliberty branch renovations are complete.

The die has been cast....and Larry-ville will close when the 'Sliberty branch renovations are complete.

sad. makes we wonder if they could have held off sliberty renovations to more prosperous times to help keep larryville open. but realistically money doesn't move like that I guess.

I must say I am excited about my local sliberty branch getting a re-do.

30 staff eliminations by the end of the year too...i'm hoping the best for all librarians--i have a few friends that were hit hard with this. It really saddens me that the libraries are suffering. Honestly, never thought I'd see the day.

they don't make philanthropists like they used to

they don't make philanthropists like they used to

nope... just rich people