Got booted from a coworking space in Chiang Mai for taking a phone call

Last week I was on a quick 5 minute call with a client about a framing issue and the manager came over and asked me to leave. Has anyone else run into coworking spaces that are way too strict about noise?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_phoenix2mo ago

A few years ago I would have said you were being unreasonable, but a bad experience changed my mind. I rented a desk at a place in Bangkok that billed itself as a professional workspace, and the constant noise from people on calls was just too much. You could hear every negotiation and pitch from three desks away. So now I see both sides. Five minutes is short, but if they let everyone make calls, it turns into a coffee shop pretty fast. Maybe try a shared office instead where calls are allowed, that worked better for me.

taylorlewis2mo ago

Heard a buddy say his coworkerspace in Austin had to ban all calls after people started taking hour-long client meetings at their desks.

oliver7191mo ago

Wait, they had to ban ALL calls? Not just the ones that are obviously too loud or long? That seems crazy to me. I can't imagine a co-working space where you can't even take a quick 30 second call to tell someone you're running late or confirm a lunch order. I get that long client meetings at a shared desk are annoying, but a blanket ban on phone calls sounds like they gave up on basic human decency and just went full lockdown mode. That place must be a ghost town now, or everyone is just texting each other from across the room. A total call ban feels like the management threw their hands up instead of just asking people to be reasonable.