The Kinkos Generation

Yesterday, USA Today ran an article on the growing number of people who take up a "third space" for work.

An estimated 30 million Americans, or roughly one-fifth of the nation's workforce, are part of the so-called Kinko's generation, employees who spend significant hours each month working outside of a traditional office.

20%!!! That's amazing. Although I don't know why I'm surprised -- I have been planted firmly in that 20% since 2000. There are definitely days when I wish I could fly a paper airplane over to Jen's desk, or wave my FOF for all to see. However, most days I'm perfectly content to pop on my headphones, sip a soy latte, and get down to business.

Interesting sidebar in the article about "Cafe Etiquette." Here are my favorites:

• Tip big and eat often -- think of it as rent for your table
• Take it outside -- when the cell phone buzzes, head for the door
• Cords get right of way -- self-explanatory, don't complain about it
  

One caveat regarding the USA Today article -- it was written in and featured San Francisco. It would be interesting to know the numbers solely for San Francisco. I bet the number is a lot higher than 20%. To do your own research, forget the Grove (the cafe featured in the article, although I prefer their Fillmore location) and head down to the Mission to Ritual Coffee Roasters. And if you're not in SF, all you have to do is Google "Ritual Coffee," or head to flickr (tags: ritro, Ritual Roasters, Ritual Coffee, etc.) Hell, "ritro" has its own flickr pool...

Personally, I "heart" my corner coffee shop, Luv a Java. Great coffee, good food (fresh sandwiches!), nice prices, and FREE WIFI.