What is coffee badging and why are companies fighting it?

Add “coffee badging” to the list of post-pandemic workplace culture coinage to keep track of in 2024.

The term, which was coined by video conferencing tech company Owl Labs in 2023, has gained some new significance this week with multiple outlets reporting Amazon is allegedly taking measures to counter the habit it refers to.

According to Owl Labs, “coffee badging” is when employees of companies with return-to-office (RTO) mandates go into office to “show face” for a few hours, then head back home to finish the work day.

The company’s “State of Hybrid Work 2023” report found more than half (58 per cent) of hybrid employees they surveyed admitted to having done it, while a further eight per cent said they haven’t, but would like to try.

Now, Amazon appears to be taking aim at the trend.

Earlier this week, Business Insider and the Seattle Times reported they had obtained Slack messages from Amazon workers who said there has been some talk among management of a minimum number of hours per day employees could be expected to spend in the office in order to meet the company’s RTO mandate. Amazon announced in 2023 it would require employees to work from the office at least three days a week.

The daily minimum hours expectation is not a formal policy change, the Seattle Times reports, and does not appear to apply uniformly to all departments. The Seattle Times also reported some teams within Amazon have been told they must be in the office for two hours each day, while Business Insider reports some were told there would be a six-hour minimum.

This is just one development in a trend that has seen some large companies use punitive measures to get employees back into the office.

Business Insider reported last fall that Amazon had allegedly begun telling managers that employees who refuse to comply with its return-to-office policy may be denied promotions.

Earlier this year, Dell made headlines after it reportedly warned fully remote workers they would not be considered for promotions, or be able to change roles, while hybrid workers would.

Workers and employers at odds

Policies like these come as a growing body of research shows employers and workers are at odds over RTO mandates and remote work policies.

According to a January 2024 report by Statistics Canada, nearly 20 per cent of Canadians were working most of their hours from home as of November 2023, up from seven per cent in May 2016.

Among employees mostly working from home in late 2023, nearly a quarter said they would ideally work a greater proportion of their hours from home than they already were, while one in eight said they would prefer to work a greater proportion of their hours while in office.

Moreover, 90 per cent of employees working from home as a result of the pandemic reported to Statistics Canada in February 2021 they could accomplish at least as much work per hour at home as they did in the office.

A study from December 2023 on RTO mandates appears to bear this out.

Researchers from the Katz Graduate School of Business at the University of Pittsburgh studied the performance of S&P 500 companies with RTO mandates and found “no significant changes in financial performance or firm values” after the mandates.

In fact, the authors reported their findings suggest mandates negatively impacted employee satisfaction, and that the results are “consistent with managers using RTO mandates to reassert control over employees and blame employees as a scapegoat for bad firm performance.”

The same Owl Labs study that coined the term “coffee badging” also concluded that employees feel “more productive, balanced, and loyal to their companies” when they are afforded flexibility at work.

The study found 62 per cent would take a pay cut of 10 per cent or more, and four per cent would quit their job if they were no longer able to work remotely or hybrid.