Quote:
Originally Posted by David Marseilles
"No conversation at this table from 12-3pm."
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Things like conversation, reading, etc., tend to be self-limiting. If you go to the cafe on your lunch break, you've got to get back to the office in a fairly short period of time or you may as well stay there and read the Help Wanted ads. The people with the computers, on the other hand, are (or at least can put up a sufficiently strong case to their bosses that they are) working. So they stay there -- sometimes for hours on end. In effect, they're using the place for an office, rent-free. While this is great if you're the computer user in question, especially if it's saving you from the assault and battery charge you'd face if the guy in the next cubicle had to go to the proctologist to get that annoying toy of his back, it's not really fair to the people who just want to drink their coffee, eat their muffin, and, maybe ... enjoy some conversation.
Civilized people, of course, see the place is busy, eat their food, and free up the space for someone else. Sadly, in a society where everyone focuses on their rights and ignores their responsibilities, the civilized people are trampled by the barbarians who are already inside the gates, because we grew them ourselves. So where the customs of polite behavior once managed interactions between people with a minimum of friction and fuss, now there have to be "dope rules" and inflexible laws to keep the barbarians in check.
Personally, I liked it the other way.