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In Defense Of 'Coffee Badging,' The Controversial New Office Trend
MSN.com ^ | September 15, 2024 | Monica Torres

Posted on 09/15/2024 8:45:45 AM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks

Do you swipe in to your office building to meet your in-person mandate, but leave as soon as possible? There’s a word for your covert strategy: “coffee badging.”

It is where you show up to the office long enough for a coffee or a meeting expressly to fulfill in-office mandates — while primarily continuing to work from home whenever you can.

This new workplace lingo was popularized by videoconferencing company Owl Labs. The company defined it as “showing face at the office and then leaving.” In its 2023 report of 2,000 full-time U.S. workers, 58% of hybrid employees said they were “coffee badging,” with an additional 8% saying they were interested in trying it out.

And as hybrid arrangements have become a more permanent feature of office life, coffee badging is still here to stay. In a more recent June LinkedIn news poll of 1,568 people, 19% of LinkedIn users said they were still “coffee badging” into work.

Amanda, a Chicago-based IT project manager for a health insurance company, is one of them. Her company has a hybrid policy, and Amanda ― who asked to keep her last name private for her job ― said managers are open with employees that badge swipes are being tracked for “badge reports,” which calculate the percentage of people in office per week or month.

She has not had a conversation about her own attendance record, but knowing that her badge swipes could potentially result in a performance issue has made her diligent about commuting to the office because she does not “want to have that conversation come up at all.”

(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Computers/Internet; Conspiracy; Society
KEYWORDS: coffeebadging; officemandates; returntooffice; silly
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

Paying for unneeded space lowers profits, which lowers the chance for raises and adds to the chance of financial problems. If employees had part-ownership of companies and their pay went up or down with profits (like the bosses’ pay does) they would do less to harm their own company. Employees and Bosses being rivals is the dumbest thing imaginable but it is very common.


41 posted on 09/15/2024 11:02:24 AM PDT by SaxxonWoods (This world is driven by envy, not greed.)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

I agree.


42 posted on 09/15/2024 11:42:44 AM PDT by metmom (He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus”)
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To: frogjerk

dope


43 posted on 09/15/2024 11:51:43 AM PDT by Gene Eric (Don't be a statist! )
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

Of course people are doing this. They’ve been doing it for a while since companies tried to start forcing people back to the office after 2-3 years of working from home. People hate going into the office and they recognize that for many jobs its completely unnecessary - they can do their jobs just as well if not better at home.


44 posted on 09/15/2024 1:05:29 PM PDT by FLT-bird
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To: frogjerk

>> dope

that’s one today’s terms for “cool” — should clarification be necessary ;)


45 posted on 09/15/2024 1:11:30 PM PDT by Gene Eric (Don't be a statist! )
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Not sure how coffee badging accomplishes anything for a company or its workers. Many people resent return-to-office mandates, including me, but office time can be useful, and it seems silly to me to just commute in, have coffee, turn around and go back home. If you make the effort to come into the office in the first place, might as well stay and work the full 8. JMO.

What people often do is come in for the morning, then go out for lunch and go home. That way they've been in the office and had face time if they need to do that, but they can still get home for half the day to take care of whatever personal things they need to or walk the dogs or whatever. They also get to avoid the evening rush hour that way. When people say "Coffee badging" what they often mean is not simply going in and leaving 5 minutes later but leaving after an hour or two or after the morning at lunchtime.

46 posted on 09/15/2024 1:12:42 PM PDT by FLT-bird
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To: dfwgator
All I know is I don’t waste 3 hours commuting back and forth to the office every day. I actually work those 3 hours.

it was a minimum 45 minutes each way for me - and those were stressful minutes in heavy traffic. Then there is the expense. Gas....food (you're going to buy some food or drinks even if you try to be budget conscious and bring your lunch most of the time)...paying to park (minimum $12/day now)....paying for doggie daycare because I can't leave the little guys at home on their own for 9 and a half hours. One's a puppy and he can't hold it that long. Doggie daycare is a minimum $50-60 per day.

So I'm spending an hour and half of my day and at least $80 per day to come to the office to work on the same documents and in the same systems I can work in from home and to have zoom meetings with colleagues scattered all across the country which I can also do at home. How about no? How does "No" sound to you? If you want my services, you will offer 100% remote. Otherwise, one of your competitors will. Good luck finding the education and decades of experience you demand, AND finding somebody who will put up with your completely ridiculous demand that they come to the office even though we've just spent years proving it can be done just as well from home.

47 posted on 09/15/2024 1:19:40 PM PDT by FLT-bird
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To: Harmless Teddy Bear
It is the grown up version of a toddler tantrum. The place you work will require you to do stuff you would rather not for money. This is the agreement. Keep on acting like a toddler and they will find someone with a more grown up mindset.

Or the opposite. Keep making patently unreasonable demands and just watch the small number of people who have the education and experience you want tell you "no" and go work for your more reasonable and flexible competitors instead. The free market works both ways.

48 posted on 09/15/2024 1:21:18 PM PDT by FLT-bird
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To: alexander_busek
Yeah, same here! Why for pete's sake is it called "coffee-badging?" What has it got to do with coffee?

The idea is they come in, drink a cup of coffee (ie show everybody they were there), then leave.

49 posted on 09/15/2024 1:24:00 PM PDT by FLT-bird
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

I just put eyedrops in, so I read it as “coffee bagging.”

I was afraid to make any connections with its cousin “tea.”


50 posted on 09/15/2024 1:26:00 PM PDT by PLMerite ("They say that we were Cold Warriors. Yes, and a bloody good show, too. 😁 " - Robert Conquest )
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To: PittsburghAfterDark
In all seriousness you take out the petty nature of snippy women, office politics and the like I see no reason for many aspects of corporate life to go back to the normal of yesteryear.

This is another reason why working from home is better. No office politics. No worrying about or dealing with HR.....if if you are target numero uno - a straight White male like me.

51 posted on 09/15/2024 1:26:49 PM PDT by FLT-bird
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks
My company did not renew one office lease in 2022 and just announced they're not renewing another office lease in a different state.

We have people who will never return to a company office because they were never in the office. We have staff from four states away and the remote employees run circles around the locals. It's not even close.

Why commute into an office to sit there in online meetings with others who aren't in the building? Why commute into an office to scramble to find a secure meeting room to have privileged meetings instead of simply meeting remotely?

In addition, complaints to Human Resources about sexual harassment and discrimination have dropped to zero for some companies.

52 posted on 09/15/2024 1:41:05 PM PDT by T.B. Yoits
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To: FLT-bird

On top of top, working from home enabled us to sell one of our cars that we really no longer needed.


53 posted on 09/15/2024 1:50:25 PM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: FLT-bird
Totally true.

But I find that generally what is being asked is not unreasonable.

Such as showing up on time and ready to work.

You don't want to do that, find a job working for the government. There you can sign in from home and watch tentacle porn for the rest of the day while the tax payer who has to actually show up to get paid gets to support your lazy butt.

54 posted on 09/15/2024 2:11:34 PM PDT by Harmless Teddy Bear ( Not my circus. Not my monkeys. But I can pick out the clowns at 100 yards.)
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To: cgbg

Don’t be too sure that’ll happen soon. The head of my department is significantly younger than I am, and he’s an office aficionado.


55 posted on 09/15/2024 2:23:39 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks (FBI out of Florida!)
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To: ProtectOurFreedom

56 posted on 09/15/2024 2:26:49 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks (FBI out of Florida!)
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To: Harmless Teddy Bear
Totally true. But I find that generally what is being asked is not unreasonable. Such as showing up on time and ready to work. You don't want to do that, find a job working for the government. There you can sign in from home and watch tentacle porn for the rest of the day while the tax payer who has to actually show up to get paid gets to support your lazy butt.

I find it unreasonable to demand that I spend a lot of time and money coming into the office when I've proven I can do my job perfectly well from home. And yes, I'm always on time and ready for work. In fact, I'll work evenings and weekends if necessary to meet important deadlines because I'm a professional. I work as a contractor doing certain specific projects for banks. They're quite demanding in terms of the education and experience they want to see from anybody they hire. There aren't all that many of us - at least not with decades of experience like they want to see. So either pay me a LOT more to put up with having to come into the office OR let me work from home. If I don't get one of those two....and let's face it, they certainly don't want to pay a whole lot more....then I'll just refuse and choose a competitor who is more flexible. As I said, the free market works both ways.

57 posted on 09/15/2024 3:26:24 PM PDT by FLT-bird
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To: allendale
The technology is only going to evolve, improve and accelerate the trend. Big cities are becoming concentrated centers of poor, non productive people with some spot exceptions.

Wow, and agree. How does this end well ??

58 posted on 09/15/2024 4:48:48 PM PDT by onona
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To: onona; allendale
The technology is only going to evolve, improve and accelerate the trend. Big cities are becoming concentrated centers of poor, non productive people with some spot exceptions.

Wow, and agree. How does this end well ??

Or maybe:

Regards,

59 posted on 09/16/2024 10:47:41 PM PDT by alexander_busek (Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.)
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