"Coffee badging," a term that's now percolating in our workplaces, is not just a trend; it's a symptom of a deeper malaise affecting the fabric of organizational culture.
At its core, coffee badging—where employees make a token appearance at the office due to restrictive 'return to work' policies for a quick coffee and badge swipe before heading home to continue with their work—reflects a two-way erosion of trust that's anything but beneficial.
This practice might seem like a clever workaround for maintaining the semblance of office presence. However, it's a stark indicator of the mutual distrust that has crept into the employer-employee relationship.
On one side, there's the leadership's skepticism about their team's productivity outside the traditional office setting, despite years of successful remote work. On the other hand, employees, feeling surveilled and undervalued, resort to gaming the system to safeguard their jobs. No one wants to get fired.
A study by Owl Labs sheds light on this caffeinated trend, noting that 58% of hybrid workers are coffee badging, with another 8% keen to try it.
Is coffee badging a misguided step?
Let's be clear: coffee badging is a band-aid solution to a cultural problem that requires surgery.
It's a manifestation of the breakdown in trust and communication between all levels of an organization. By merely clocking in for appearances' sake, we're not just skirting around the edges of office life but undermining the principles of accountability, engagement, and mutual respect that underpin a healthy work environment.
Moreover, the implications of coffee badging extend beyond the immediate relationship between employers and employees. If we're to champion flexible work arrangements, they must be built on a foundation of trust and transparency, not on the superficial metrics of physical presence. (And yes, we need face-to-face time, but that model requires collaborative conversations to create the right team or organizational norms, not mandated days in the office just because leaders want to see more bums in the office seats.)
In essence, coffee badging is a step back for corporate culture.
It's a reflection of a leader's struggle to adapt. Leaders must strive for solutions that foster trust and connection, recognizing that the strength of our teams lies not in their physical location, per se, but in their commitment, creativity, and shared purpose.
Coffee badging is simply the latest work hack by employees trying to game the system of terrible corporate culture.
Watch a short video I put together about coffee badging, including a real-life story of a solutions engineer in India who is a 'coffee badger.'
