How We Approach And Support Coffee Shop Working

"Buffer has been fully remote since the beginning. There's no office and no headquarters - just people around the world doing their work from wherever works best for them. That freedom is great, but it can also mean days when you don't leave your apartment or talk to anyone face-to-face. Coffee shops solve that. You get a change of scenery, ambient noise, and the occasional random encounter."

"To support this way of working, Buffer introduced a coffee shop stipend years ago. The idea is simple: the company reimburses beverages and small snacks you purchase in order to work at a coffee shop or cafe. Of course, coffee shop work isn't free. Most venues expect you to order at least a coffee or two to use their space, which is completely fair!"

"I'm based in Taiwan, where working from a coffee shop is just the norm. Most cafes are set up for it, and there's one within a five-minute walk from pretty much anywhere. It's the perfect place for this kind of work style. This isn't just a lifestyle I stumbled into. Buffer has a specific perk that makes this possible: the coffee shop stipend."

Buffer, a fully remote company with no physical office, supports its distributed workforce through a coffee shop stipend that reimburses employees for beverages and small snacks purchased while working from cafes. This benefit addresses a key challenge of remote work—isolation and lack of face-to-face interaction—by enabling employees to work from coffee shops, which provide ambient noise, scenery changes, and opportunities for social connection. The author, based in Taiwan, has worked from over 500 different coffee shops across multiple countries over 10 years at Buffer. Coffee shops are particularly accessible in Taiwan, where they're culturally normalized workspaces. The stipend was recently upgraded after the author requested an increase, reflecting Buffer's responsiveness to employee needs and commitment to supporting flexible work arrangements.

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