‘Coffee badging’ – what is it?

17th May 2024

Employment law, Newbury, Berkshire.

Workplace tensions are continuing to run high in various businesses which embraced a hybrid working culture during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many employees reaped benefits from this change in working habits – enjoying the flexibility that homeworking brought.

Employees and the flexibility of home working, introducing new employment contracts with office attendance monitoring systems.

As we have emerged from the pandemic’s restrictions, many businesses are still trying to get properly back to office working. However, many are being met with resistance. A recent survey by People Management found that a huge 69% of those surveyed would look for a new job if asked to increase their office attendance. ONS employees recently announced strike action in response to a requirement that they attend at the office 2 days per week.

“Coffee badging” is a US term which refers to the way many employees are getting around employer monitoring of office attendance. Employees are coming to the office and logging in but spending only a short amount of time in the office itself – getting a coffee and chatting – before returning home. The workplace metrics show office attendance but, in reality, the employee is only ‘passing through’.

How can employers deal with this? Those that have put office attendance monitoring systems in place need to make it clear that their policy is one of full-day office attendance on office working days. They also need to consider taking formal disciplinary action where breaches are identified.

However, there is a very tricky balance to be struck here. There is a significant risk of trust issues developing. Employees are no longer convinced that office attendance is required to make the workplace more dynamic and creative, and they feel that surveillance systems show a lack of trust. Rather than taking an inflexible stance, employers could consider the situation with their employees to understand why they are ‘coffee-badging’ rather than embracing in-office working. A collaborative approach may work wonders for employee relations in the long run and the benefits of hybrid and flexible working should help to maintain a more diverse workplace. 

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