Britain’s pubs have become our “second office”, with 1.6 million more hours spent on WiFi for work reasons in pubs than in coffee shops, according to a report by The Cloud, the biggest high street WiFi provider in the UK.
Multiple work – and other! – uses
An estimated 5m people each week use the WiFi available in pubs for work purposes, sending an average of 25 work emails per week each. That’s a staggering half a billion work emails sent from Britain’s pubs every month.
While staying on top of emails is why 77% of these connected workers say they log on to pub WiFi, it’s not the only way the technology is being used. A cheeky 15% have taken a video conference call in the pub, and nearly 40% have written and sent presentations/documents whilst propping up the bar.
The new research also reveals that nearly a fifth have sent emails from the pub to make the boss think they are working, and around 1 in 7 men have sent an email to a partner pretending they are still at work.
Fewer distractions in the pub
When asked why they used pub WiFi for work, a third of those surveyed said they believed there were fewer distractions in the pub than in the office, which may explain the 15% who admitted to interviewing a potential candidate, 20% who have signed a business deal and over 30% who have had a business meeting – all in a pub.
The Cloud
The Cloud has over 9,000 pubs on its network, more than any other WiFi provider, including Greene King, JD Wetherspoon and Punch Taverns establishments. Its data shows that the average pub WiFi user logged in for 2.9 hours in January 2013, compared to 1.5 hours in the coffee shops on its network, which include Caffe Nero, Pret A Manger and Eat. Pub WiFi users downloaded more than 65 petabytes of data (70 billion megabytes) in the first two weeks of January 2013 alone.
Today, The Cloud takes working via pub WiFi one step further and is renaming Greene King’s City of London pub the Golden Fleece as the ‘Mouse & Mat’. Office workers in London’s busy financial district are encouraged to log onto the free WiFi and try proper pub-based working for themselves.
Workers need to connect – wherever they are
Vince Russell, managing director of The Cloud, said: “As business becomes increasingly pressurised, workers are finding a need to connect wherever they are, whether they’re between meetings or just need to escape the busy office to get through their to do list. We knew WiFi was valuable for getting reliable access to work emails or quickly downloading large documents – what we didn’t expect was that Brits do so much of this in pubs, this may reflect how pubs are changing to become more flexible spaces throughout the working day and into the evening.”
Steve Jebson, group commercial director at Greene King, said: “Since the launch of WiFi in our pubs last year, we have seen an increase in customers signing up to the service on a weekly basis. During their working day our customers know they can enjoy our hospitality, have some great food and maybe a proper pint, while working at their laptops, checking emails and even hosting business meetings.”
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