Remote work saved the day during the COVID-19 pandemic, but now many employers—even those that initially embraced fully remote or hybrid work—are calling their people back to the office, triggering a cleverly named fad: “coffee badging.”
What Is Coffee Badging?
Some high-profile employers are getting pushback from employees who are unhappy with return-to-office (RTO) policies that signal the return of long, stressful commutes and inflexible schedules. For example, media reports from last fall indicated a majority of corporate Amazon workers were unhappy with a new company mandate to work in the office five days a week. Many were considering looking for new jobs themselves or knew someone who was.
But employers dissatisfied with so many far-flung employees are now requiring workers to spend at least some days in the office. Enter the coffee badgers—employees who come to the office the requisite number of days but don’t stay much longer than it takes to grab a cup of coffee.
A 2023 report from video conferencing company Owl Labs found that 58% of hybrid employees participating in a survey had engaged in coffee badging, and another 8% said they would like to try the practice.
The Owl Labs study found that more men than women coffee badge, and the practice is more prevalent among younger workers. The research found that among the hybrid workers in the survey, 63% of millennials had coffee badged, compared to 54% of Gen X, 43% of Gen Z, and 38% of Boomers.
Why Trouble Is Brewing
To combat the problem, employers need to understand why employees are engaging in the practice.
Teambuilding.com, a company providing teambuilding experiences for employers, reports that workers push back against RTO policies for many reasons, including a desire to save money.
Owl Labs reports workers say they save money on parking, commuting costs, pet care, breakfast, and lunch when they work from home. It all adds up to $51 a day on average. That’s $36 a day more than it costs for a hybrid worker to work from home.
The teambuilding.com report also notes that in addition to money, employees save time working from home since they aren’t stuck in traffic, and when they do go into the office, coffee badging saves them time since the short days allow them to avoid peak traffic times.
In addition, employees may resort to coffee badging as a way of protesting an employer’s RTO rules. Employees who find the office environment unengaging are also less interested in putting in a full day at the office, the teambuilding.com report notes.
Productivity also can take a hit since coffee badgers may spend much of their in-office time socializing, more focused on making sure managers notice their attendance instead of concentrating on work, according to the teambuilding.com report.
Tips for Employers
What can employers do about the problem? Shiftbase, a provider of scheduling software, advises employers calling employees back into the office to bring them in for a reason.
Make sure that the days employees are expected to be in the office are “not identical to the day they would have at home, but in a less comfortable chair,” a Shiftbase blog post says.
Making sure in-office days are filled with activities best done in person is an effective way to combat coffee badging. Team brainstorming sessions and client meetings are just a few suggestions. An occasional catered lunch can be another enticement, Shiftbase says.
Providing a welcoming and well-equipped environment also helps. “No one is going to stay for a shabby desk pool or the ol’ cube farm,” the Shiftbase blog says. “These are the icons of uncomfortable, crowded working life that many people have been glad to leave behind.”
Another suggestion from Shiftbase: Compensate employees for some commuting costs. Coffee badging accepts the costs of commuting (although abbreviated days allow workers to avoid the most stressful traffic times), but compensating the commute makes in-office days easier to take.
Tammy Binford is a contributing editor.