What is 'coffee badging?' Workplace trend seen as protest to return-to-office push

SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — First, it was Amazon dropping the boom on remote work and ordering workers back to the office five days a week. Other major employers have followed with AT&T announcing on Tuesday that it too would mandate workers being in the office five days a week, beginning in January.

But as the post-pandemic return-to-office push gathers steam, again, workers are quietly mounting a pushback of their own. In the wake of office pandemic era work trends like "the great migration" and "quiet quitting," the latest workplace trend has been branded as "coffee badging."

What is coffee badging?

According to Forbes, coffee badging is a workplace trend that started to appear last year as more employees returned to their offices. The behavior allows "employees to meet their required in-office attendance policies, but avoid spending too much time there."

Here's how it works.

On a given day, an employee goes into the office, grabs a coffee and socializes with fellow employees, and then quietly slips out and finishes their shift at home. By swiping their badge and putting in face-time with co-workers, the employee has effectively "made an appearance," and "earned a badge," despite still working the majority of their day from home.

"A person engages in this trend, as they feel taken advantage of for being forced to undertake an expensive and time-consuming commute to and from the office," according to Forbes.

How widespread is coffee badging?

More than half of hybrid workers — about 58% — admitted to coffee badging in a 2023 survey from Owl Labs, a videoconferencing software company. Another 8% of hybrid workers surveyed said they hadn't coffee badged yet but are interested in giving it a try.

A subsequent 2024 report from Owl Labs saw the number of U.S. workers who admitted to coffee badging drop to 44%. According to that report, 70% of those employees were caught by their bosses, but 59% of employers "didn't mind."

There are various reasons for coffee badging, according to Owl Labs. Many employees (about 60%) believe they are more productive when they work from home. They also seem to spend more when they have to go into work.

Workers, according to the survey, spend an average of $51 a day when they go into the office. That's $408 a month for hybrid workers who go in eight days a month and $1,020 for full-time workers.

Commuting is another big factor, according to Owl Labs, with 61% of workers spending 30 to 90 minutes on their daily commute, and another 20% spending one and a half to two hours commuting.

“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," said Owl Labs CEO Frank Weishaupt. "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.” 

Who is coffee badging?

According to Owl Labs, men are more likely to show up and leave early — 62% compared to 38% of women. In terms of age, millennials are the most likely generation to coffee badge, followed by Gen Xers, then Gen Z, with baby boomers last.

Looking abroad, coffee badging is slightly less prevalent in the UK at 39%, less prevalent still in Germany at 38%. France, according to Owl Labs, has the lowest self-reported levels of coffee badging at 22%.