Coffee Badging: 2023 Trend Of  Workplace Attendance 

Terms like as “quiet quitting,” “rage applying,” and “great resignation” have gained significant traction since the previous year. It has effectively encapsulated the frustration and anger experienced by certain employees due to the disruption of their work-life equilibrium caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. As organizations request their employees to resume working in physical office spaces, most of them are becoming more strategic in optimizing their time spent in these environments. This has resulted in a contemporary fad commonly referred to as “coffee badging.” You could call it the 2023 trend of workplace attendance. 

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What Is Coffee Badging? Understanding The Trend

Are you that employee who’s behaving like a scout like most others? Well, isn’t it the Coffee Badge project you guys are busy working on? Have you had second thoughts on implementing the coffee-badging trend, though?

When using coffee badging, I’ve noticed employees arriving only long enough to swipe their IDs from the building. Wait a second! They of course also grab a cup of coffee and make their visibility known before they proudly make an exit like an Irishman. Now isn’t that what this new trend is all about? 

So, the term “coffee badging” describes how employees arrive at work, grab a coffee, mingle with colleagues, and then depart with a symbolic “badge” for their participation. The process makes special use of the concepts of showing up for work, going out for coffee with coworkers, and swiping your ID badge to prove that you have been there. Following this, workers immediately leave the office and go home. This is basically seen as opposition to the most recent mandates about returning to work.

According to Owl Labs’ 2023 State of Hybrid Work report, the company specializing in its 360-degree video conferencing technologies, “the yearly return-to-office power struggle that happens each fall has arrived yet again.” Companies including Zoom, Meta, Salesforce, JP Morgan, and others are requesting, and in some instances, mandating, that rehires return to work.

Based on the Owl poll, there are multiple reasons why workers are declining to return to work. Many businesses still “have work to do” in order to establish a warm, productive, and stress-free work atmosphere that makes employees want to return. People don’t want to waste time or money on repeated journeys to the office. 

Owl Labs CEO Frank Weishaupt stated: “People don’t want to spend time and money traveling to and from the workplace on a regular basis if all they’re going to do is sit through the same video conferences they could be doing from the comforts of their own homes or work on less productive things that they couldn’t complete at work. The information indicates that many businesses still need to improve their efforts to provide an inviting, efficient, and stress-free work environment that encourages employees to congregate.”

Who Is Coffee Badging The Most?

It makes sense that hybrid workers are most interested in coffee badges. The reason is that they can work from home and travel to work every day. Of them, 38% are women and 62% are men, according to Owl Labs’ most recent research, State of Hybrid Work 2023.

The paper doesn’t talk about why men might be more likely than women to coffee badge. However, the most likely reason is that there are different expectations for how men and women should behave in the office. This matches previous studies on how people act at work. For example, a report stated men are more comfortable asking for higher pay than women.

Perhaps because older generations don’t work from home as much or have different expectations at work, while younger Gen Z isn’t as entrenched in the workforce, millennials are more likely than previous generations to wear a coffee badge.

Top Reasons Employees Want The Coffee Badge

There are several reasons why employees are Coffee Badging. However, not all of their intentions are damaging to their jobs, even though some may be. It may not be necessary to attribute this tendency to a negative outcome for your company. That being said, you should know why it’s occurring and what you can do to stop it.

Here are the top six reasons why employees aspire to have the Coffee Badge, along with suggestions for how to handle each.

1. Forced to go back to work: The return to work has left many employees unhappy. Certain individuals are even making their workplaces blatantly toxic. So, in order to avoid hanging out with a bunch of irate whiners, even those who are fine with working in the office are coffee-badging. The fact is, coffee badging might not be a bad thing if staff members are producing quality work elsewhere.

Solution: You should figure out if employees are working more productively or are taking time off. Regaining control over workplace time may be necessary if you see a decline in productivity. Perhaps you should accept Coffee Badging if it doesn’t.

2. Rewarded wrongly: Some employers and supervisors give workers the impression that showing their faces at work is essential to receiving positive feedback and being considered for advancement. When employers manage like that, they mistake the forest for the trees – dismissing good work for a nice appearance.

Solution: Make sure supervisors evaluate employees based on their effort and results, not their presence at work. Physical presence can also influence one’s judgment, which can lead to a bias known as proximity bias.

3. It’s too simple: Some workers are opting for the easy way out. When they come to work, it’s clear that their only intention is to put in the bare minimum of effort imaginable. This is a serious issue because it causes workers to Coffee Badge. They probably aren’t focused on whether they’re at the office or not. They could be Quiet Quitters or related to other workplace TikTok fads that you don’t want to see spread around the office.

Solution: Remind managers that in a hybrid workplace, the quality, quantity, and ability to accomplish or exceed goals should be the primary metrics by which employees are evaluated.

4. They are under pressure: Coffee Badging is a lot like clocking in and out at work. When workers are told they must clock in at a specific hour on a specific day, they have to sacrifice other activities, such as travel, preparation, and socializing, in order to get to work on time. They speculate that had they worked from the comfort of their own homes, they would have been more efficient.

Solution: If employees can show they can get their work done from home, you and their managers may choose to relax attendance requirements. It’s likely that you’d also prefer to have your teams and employees schedule their time together in the office. Those are best done in person and make effective use of FaceTime.

5. There is no way out Many workers report to work because they feel they have no other option. It’s fine if you, as an employer, want to set some standards for behavior around the office. Nonetheless, it is your responsibility to ensure that workers enjoy coming to work and are able to perform at their best while there.

Solution: Make sure everyone can get to and from work easily, that everyone is comfortable, and that everyone has all they need to execute their tasks well. Providing possibilities for professional and personal growth during their time there is a plus.

6. They are coffee lovers: Maybe they don’t need the coffee (most people certainly stop at their favorite shop as a reward for making the trek). But they like the opportunity to engage with others over a shared interest.

Organizations that welcome employees’ brief visits could benefit. When workers have time to chat, they are more likely to learn new things and create new relationships. It may be irrelevant whether an employee spends two hours or eight hours every day at work. The success of the organization and its employees is what really matters.

Solution: There isn’t much broken here. Their motivation for coming in is solid. You can help everyone have a productive day by providing places for them to both gather and concentrate on their own tasks.

Is It Possible to Go Past Coffee Badging Trend?

A complete return to a five-day workweek spent in the workplace is something that many CEOs are looking for. Massive numbers of employees are still choosing to maintain a fully remote work schedule or adopt a hybrid one. Is there one issue on which we can all agree? The effort of coffee badging doesn’t seem to be worth it.

Flexible work arrangements combine the greatest aspects of both work and life by enabling employees who find that working remotely is how they work best to continue being happy and by providing accommodations for those who must collaborate with others five days a week. However, there’s no reason rewards for people to come up and have a cup of coffee can’t be included in the mix.

In the end, coffee badging is a result of workplace practices that don’t allow employees to take breaks from work to the extent that suits them best. Depending on which side of the relationship you believe should be in control—the employer or the employee—your opinions on how to put an end to the practice may differ.

Conclusion

Coffee badging is a trend that may catch on among hybrid workers who need to be physically present at the office a few days a week but who otherwise prefer to do most of their work from home. Coffee badging workplace trend is more than just bending the rules. The companies might be merely expecting their employees to be present for a minimum of two or three full days each week.

Is the coffee-badging trend a good idea? It may or may not be. However, you can’t dispute that the current scenario is less than ideal. It’s essentially working from home but still committing time and money towards the journey to and from your office building.