Explained: What Is Coffee Badging, New Workplace Trend As Employees Return To Office

Phrases like "quiet quitting", "rage applying" and "great resignation" have become viral since last year and have captured the annoyance and frustration of some employees as the Covid-19 pandemic disrupted their work-life balance. As companies ask employees to return to office now, many are getting smarter with how they spend their time there. This has led to the emergence of the trend called "coffee badging", as per a report in Forbes.

According to the phrase "coffee badging," workers come to their office, have a coffee, chat with coworkers, and then leave, receiving a figurative "badge" for showing up. The procedure particularly takes advantage of the notion of arriving at work, swiping your ID badge to verify that you have been there, and going out for coffee with coworkers. Post this, employees leave the office right away and head home. This is essentially seen as a resistance against the recent return-to-office mandates.

In its 2023 State of Hybrid Work report, Owl Labs- a firm that creates 360-degree video conferencing solutions stated that "the yearly return-to-office power struggle that happens each fall has arrived yet again." Companies such as Zoom, Meta, Salesforce, JP Morgan, and others are asking and even forcing their staff members to come back to work.

There are several reasons why employees are refusing to come back to work, according to the Owl poll. People don't want to waste time and money on frequent office trips, and a lot of companies still "have work to do" to create an inviting, efficient, and stress-free work environment that encourages employees to want to come back. 

Frank Weishaupt, CEO of Owl Labs said, "People don't want to spend time and money on frequent office pilgrimages if they're just going to be sitting on the same video calls they'd be doing in the comfort of their own homes or on tasks that they feel less productive doing from the office. The data shows that many companies have more work to do to provide an attractive, productive and stress-free office environment that makes employees want to gather."

However, this trend can also have severe implications as it points to a negative aspect of work culture. Employees would feel that going to the office is a task and must be avoided. It could cause an issue among coworkers- those who spend the whole day in the office might become irate if they witness their colleagues taking undue advantage of hybrid work regulations. Additionally, coffee badging can shorten team meetings and sabotage initiatives to create a supportive workplace environment.

Career expert Greg Giangrande, in an interview with Fox News, said that he would not advise coffee badging to potential employees. "If you're a coffee badger and you're only showing up for an hour or two, your employer is going to know that. And I don't think they're going to accept that as showing up for the day for very long," he added.