The Coffee Shop as a Workplace

Walk past a café in Hanoi, Đà Nẵng or Ho Chi Minh City mid-morning on a weekday and you will see laptops open on many tables. Someone in headphones is typing, a group of young people is sketching a diagram on paper, two people in shirts are discussing a contract over two iced coffees.

For many people in Vietnam's cities, the café is not just for relaxing. It is a "second office" — sometimes the only office.

Why did the café become a workplace?

There are many practical reasons why cafés work well for working:

• Wi-Fi and power sockets are almost standard in city cafés.
• Low cost. The price of a drink is usually far less than renting a desk in an office.
• A change of scene. Moving between places helps many people feel more inspired than sitting in one spot all day.
• Easy to meet people. A café is a neutral, easy-to-find, not-too-formal meeting point.
• Crowded homes. For many, a café is quieter than home.

On top of that is an existing habit: Vietnamese people are used to lingering in cafés, as sidewalk coffee culture shows. Once work moved onto laptops, bringing it to the café was a natural next step.

Who works in cafés?

Watch a busy café on a weekday and you will see many different groups:

Cafés are changing with their working customers

As more people bring laptops, many cafés have adapted:

• Long tables with sockets in the middle of the room for solo customers.
• Quiet zones separate from the chatting area, sometimes with "please keep quiet" signs.
• Small meeting rooms that can be booked by the hour.
• Long opening hours, with some cafés open late or almost all day for night owls.
• Café-coworking hybrids, where customers pay by the hour or day, with drinks included.

On the other hand, some cafés go the opposite way: limiting Wi-Fi or seating time at weekends, to keep a conversational atmosphere and make room for new customers.

Etiquette for working in a café

A café is a shared space. A few small habits help both workers and those who came to relax feel comfortable:

1. Order in proportion to how long you stay. If you're there all afternoon, ordering another drink is appreciated.
2. Use headphones for videos and online meetings, and speak softly.
3. Don't take a large table alone at busy times.
4. Don't leave belongings to hold a seat for long while you're out.
5. Respect the café's rules on seating time, quiet zones and sockets.

Staying productive without overdoing the coffee

A whole day of working in a café can easily turn into one cup after another. A few tips to keep your energy up:

• Alternate coffee with water, tea or juice.
• Drink coffee in the morning and early afternoon, and cut back in the evening if you have trouble sleeping.
• Get up and move every hour or two.
• Healthy adults are generally advised not to exceed about 400 mg of caffeine a day (according to EFSA and the FDA); children, teenagers and pregnant women should limit caffeine and ask their doctor.

A new chapter in Vietnamese coffee culture

From plastic stools on the sidewalk to long tables with sockets, Vietnamese coffee has always been about "sitting". As work changes, so does the place where people sit with their coffee. To learn more about the brewing methods common in modern cafés, read Espresso Machines in Vietnam and Vietnamese-Style Pour-Over.