How to Combat Coffee Badging with Transparency

Young male office worker in the office at the coffee stand making a cup.

Last week I saw an article in the media about the new trend of coffee badging. In companies that order employees back to the office, some will resist by making a brief appearance at work and then returning home. I get how many people prefer to avoid the commute and would like to work from home at their own pace. I also get why companies want their people back in the office. There has to be a happy medium, and transparency just might hold the key. I will explain how to combat coffee badging with transparency.

The COVID Move to Virtual Work

It made perfect sense during COVID that organizations asked their people to work from home to minimize the spread of the disease. After all, much of the work that white collar employees do is via computer. They have access to data via the web, and Microsoft 365 provides tools to create documents. Virtual communication platforms like MS Teams and Zoom make it easy to have meetings. From the employee perspective it saves time and money to work from home. You no longer have a commute, and you don’t need to buy work clothes. The cost of eating lunch out every day at work adds up. A return to the office seems like something desirable is being taken away only because it is. Employees are losing autonomy and flexibility. It is no wonder that some will engage in coffee badging to appear to meet the letter of the law while violating the spirit.

The Post-Pandemic Move Back To the Office

Now that the pandemic is over, one of the main employer motivations for working from home no longer exists. Many companies have instructed their employees that they are expected to return to the office, some allowing a hybrid schedule and others demanding full on-site. We have seen this for private companies like Amazon, Dell and Tesla. Recently President Trump signed an executive order mandating back to the office for federal employees.

There are good reasons to ask employees to work in the face-to-face environment of the office. Although people might be able to get individual tasks done as effectively from home, it comes at a cost.

  • It is hard to build trust via online communication. Virtual meetings are great when there is a specific purpose, but they are not good for building rapport with people. When you are face-to-face it is easier to engage in informal get to know you banter that almost doesn’t exist virtually. In person you can use nonverbal cues to catch someone’s eye, and you can jump into a conversation more easily. This informal back-and-forth is where you get to know people, and that builds trust.
  • Social isolation is bad for mental health. Humans are social beings, and when we are isolated at home, even though we interact virtually, there is something missing. The presence of others stimulates us physiologically in a way that a virtual meeting where most have their cameras off cannot.
  • Teamwork works better in person. Virtual teams can be effective, but the most effective teams work face-to-face. The physical interaction allows people to know one another better, which makes it easier to work together. It also makes the work more enjoyable. And from time-to-time at the end of the day, you can go out together for a drink (a team-building activity) before heading home.
  • Culture is easier to build when you are together. There are many features of organizational culture that are hard to build virtually. Online you can focus on the formal aspects of work–the tasks that need to be done and decisions that need to be made. In person you can work on the informal interpersonals that create the norms for how everyone is expected to treat one another and to build psychological safety.

How To Combat Coffee Badging with Transparency

Transparency is when a leader explains the reasons for a decision so employees understand the why. Part of explaining the why is allowing employees to have input. They get to express their opinions and frustrations. They get to make suggestions. Sometimes those suggestions can result in a compromise, for example, perhaps the why can be accomplished with a hybrid schedule, for example, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday everyone is in the office, and other days they are at home. At the end of the day, people will feel that they were allowed to make input, and that they understand the rationale. They won’t necessarily agree, but if they understand the reasons, they will be more likely to accept.

When an organization is not transparent, and merely sends out an edict demanding a return to the office, employees will make up their own reasons. Those reasons will probably be bad ones. Employees might conclude that company leaders merely want to make use of expensive facilities, or they do not care about their people. It might be concluded that the company heads merely enjoy wielding their power. These alternative explanations can be destructive and lead people to engage in coffee badging. My advice to organization leaders in government and the private sector is not to assume that edicts will get people to comply. My advice for how to combat coffee badging with transparency involves a two-way communication where leaders explain the rationale for the decision and allow employees to have their say about it.

Image generated with DALL-E 4.0. Prompt: Image of office employee at a coffee station at work in the office.

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