As some companies are adding more in-office days to their hybrid work policies, employees unhappy about the adjustment have found a way to skirt the requirements. A controversial trend called “coffee badging” has seen renewed popularity in recent weeks. Coffee badging is where an employee badges into the office and stays only a few hours— long enough to grab a coffee and maybe attend a meeting before heading home to beat the afternoon rush hour. 

Coffee badging and quiet quitting

Employees are using coffee badging to maintain control over their office hours and work-life balance. It could be viewed as an alternative to fully quiet quitting—meeting the technical requirements while still setting their own parameters around the workday. 

The trend was first coined in a 2023 report by Owl Labs, which found that 58% of hybrid employees surveyed admitted to “showing face at the office and then leaving.” Another 8% said they hadn’t coffee-badged at the time but wanted to. 

Within that number, coffee badging also varied by age group, showing different generations’ varying sentiments toward return to office (RTO). 

“Among hybrid workers, 63% of millennials coffee badge compared to 54% of Gen X, 43% of Gen Z, and 38% of boomers,” the report said. 

Although the trend first popped up in conversations last year, coffee badging has seen renewed scrutiny in recent weeks as major employers have ramped up in-office requirements in an attempt to crack down on these loopholes. 

Earlier this week, Business Insider obtained Slack messages from Amazon workers who were told they had to be in the office for at least two hours for their in-person workday to count. Other teams were directed to stay as many as six hours. 

The disconnect between employees and management

Companies including Amazon and Dell have attempted to enforce RTO mandates and office relocation by blocking promotions for some employees who don’t comply. 

Coffee badging is another sign of the disconnect between employees and management on remote and hybrid work.  

About 35% of Americans are doing at least some or all of their work from home, according to new data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The number is the same as it was in 2022 and about a 10% jump from before the pandemic. 

Flexible work seems to be not just the new norm but also beneficial for worker productivity. When employees are in the office, they are often more distracted by the people around them. 

 And a new working paper found that RTO mandates didn’t actually help a company’s productivity or financial outlook.