'Coffee badging' trend sees employees try to take control in the workplace
Lockdowns, working from home, and hybrid working had many of us reconsidering our work-life balance and whether the work we’ve been doing is worthwhile beyond the financial element.
With inflation and the resultant cost of living spikes, money isn’t going as far as it used to, either. If you’re working all hours and still don’t have enough disposable income to save for long-term goals, it’s understandable that you might wonder whether it’s worth it.
Mulling this over has resulted in as much as 30% of workers claiming they’re looking for different jobs, and huge competition in the job market points to this trend for people looking to cut loose from their current employer and find something more suited to their ambitions.
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Return-to-office mandates have got many employees considering their options too, with the work-from-home genie being thoroughly out of the bottle.
Which brings us to a trend that’s fallen upon offices up and down the country: coffee badging.
If you’re not in the know, coffee badging is the practice of turning up to work, signing in, showing face around the office, then sneaking back home under the guise of a coffee break.
Along with employees undercutting office time requirements, it’s also seen as an act of rebellion against business leaders who believe office workers are more productive than home-based ones.
There’s plenty of data out there to suggest that, actually, remote workers are considerably more productive than office workers, although naturally some studies contest this idea.
Nevertheless, for people who prefer to work at home, return to office mandates can seem arbitrary and counterproductive.
Coffee badging is a means to regain some ground on the issue, as far as many self-proclaimed practitioners would have it on TikTok, anyway.
Where coming into the office isn’t specified as being there for a full working day, some argue there’s a loophole that they’re justified in abusing.
It’s surprisingly popular too. A survey by Owl Labs found that 58% of US respondents had admitted to coffee badging.
The counter-offensive by companies, it seems, is to actively reward those who show the most face in the office.
An anonymous human resource worker told the Huffington Post that she aimed to reward people who worked the longest hours with promotions, using their swipe cards to find the best performers.
You might argue that time worked isn’t equal to work done, of course, especially in busy and distracting office environments.
Colleagues gathering around desks to share memes might therefore be rewarded with promotions while their home-working counterparts are focused and grinding away.
The threat of fewer promotions might fall on deaf ears, too, with Employment Hero pointing to 51% of Gen Z workers claiming that the pandemic decreased the relative importance of their careers.
Discussing ‘quiet quitting’, another trend that’s hit the workplace post-Covid, Jill Cotton, Career Trends Expert at Glassdoor, told MailOnline: “Workers should not see this as a long-term solution to any problems they have in the workplace.
“While you think you might be quiet quitting and doing the bare minimum, those around you may think you are literally just showing your face, you don't like your job and want to hide behind others.
“Is there a danger of losing your job when quiet quitting? I would say yes. It can really damage your long-term career prospects.
“If you are not looking for extra opportunities, access to training, engaging with leaders and making your work known, just coming in and going away, it's difficult to achieve anything.
“The other big danger of using quiet quitting as a long-term strategy is that your experience might stagnate while your peers move on, making it tricky to find another job.
“And in future interviews when hiring managers ask for examples of your achievements, if you are doing the bare minimum you may struggle for answers.
“This doesn't mean that the only way to get ahead is to work yourself to the bone or put yourself at risk of burnout, but if you find yourself wanting to disengage from your role, reflect upon why this might be and talk to your line manager.”
Where do you stand on this trend? Should workers just get on with it, or are we all due a revolution in the relationship between employers and employees?
Topics: UK Food
Rachael Davis