In Defense Of 'Coffee Badging,' The Controversial New Office Trend

Hispanolistic via Getty ImagesDo 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. AdvertisementThis 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.Advertisement Amanda, a Chicago-based IT...