After several years of remote work due to the COVID pandemic, companies have been calling employees back to the office for some time now. Although timidly initially, in 2025, employers became rather strict about mandatory office hours.
However, employees, now very much used to the benefits of flexible and remote work, aren’t happy about it. Therefore, they found a workaround to comply with the return-to-office policy and still keep some of their flexibility — coffee badging.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Coffee badging is a new employee trend — when workers come to the office just “to be seen” and comply with the return-to-office mandate without jeopardizing their flexibility.
- Employees practice coffee badging when they don’t understand the gist of mandatory RTO policies.
- Coffee badging can hamper team dynamics and collaboration.
- If your company plans to introduce mandatory RTO policy, focus on clarity, connection and value, and define important tasks that require in-person collaboration.
What is coffee badging anyway?
President and CEO of the O’Connor Company Clark Lowe sees coffee badging as ”the workplace version of checking the box — employees show up just long enough to make an appearance, grab a coffee, say hello, then disappear.”
In his opinion, this rather new phenomenon is a reaction to rigid return-to-office policies that feel performative:
“People don’t badge in to do better work — they badge in because leadership asked for face time without clear purpose or outcomes.”
In 2023, corporate America started to call employees back to the office. 2025 saw a return to the office for 5 days a week for the government workers as well. At the same time, data indicate that structured hybrid models continue to grow in popularity.
According to the Q4 2024 Flex Index Report, 43% of US companies implemented this way of working, up from 20% in 2023. The study shows that “the average US firm requires 2.78 days per week in the office.” Moreover, 32% of employers require 5 days of office work, while only 25% of companies offer fully flexible arrangements without office time.
Further reading
Are you interested to learn more about return-to-office policies? We’ve got you covered:
How do employees react to return-to-office policies?
Employees are not happy to give up their flexibility. BambooHR report 2024 shows that 52% of workers prefer to work from home because it allows for a better work-life balance.
Also, 39% admit they work less in the office due to socializing with coworkers. Although this helps colleagues connect, sometimes it can decrease productivity. Moreover, almost half of the employees (42%) who returned to the office feel like they are showing up just for visibility.
HR thought leader and consultant Kyle Smith says many employees resent the fact that they are being required to return to the office. Therefore, they use coffee badging and similar tactics to rebel against their required return, but without jeopardizing their job.
For Smith, coffee badging is “most certainly an act of defiance against the company.”
Why do employers impose RTO policies?
When asked why they call employees back to the office, 68% of companies indicated fostering collaboration and teamwork as the main reason, while 64% pointed out productivity, according to the ResumeTemplates report. Moreover, the BambooHR Report states that the main reason for 32% of employers was the desire to track their workers.
Among other reasons, CNBC cites:
- Making use of expensive real estate (like office rents),
- Boosting dipped company stock prices, and
- Cutting headcount without firing employees, hoping rigid RTO policies will make them quit voluntarily.
How do RTO policies affect employee productivity and collaboration?
But let us go back to the productivity argument. Are mandatory office hours really collaboration and productivity boosters? It depends, says David Kochanek, Head of Thought Leadership Strategy and Personal Branding at Thought Leadership:
‘’Mandating office time without meaningful structure can backfire. Rather than boosting collaboration or performance, it can create friction, reduce motivation, and even erode trust. Especially if people feel they’re being monitored more than supported.”
If employees don’t understand the purpose of RTO requirements, disengagement will likely rise, he adds:
“Productivity may not drop immediately, but long-term engagement definitely takes a hit.’’
Lowe agrees with Kochanek:
“When return-to-office mandates are based on control instead of collaboration, performance and motivation take a hit. Employees start focusing on optics rather than output. The most engaged teams I’ve led are the ones who are trusted to own their work — not the ones told to sit at a desk for visibility’s sake.”
Although some employers feel their workforce is more productive in the office, studies have shown this isn’t always the case, says Tracey Beveridge, HR Director at Personnel Checks:
“A recent study by SHRM highlighted a troubling trend in organizations that have implemented return-to-office (RTO) mandates. Employees in these organizations have reported a staggering 63% increase in uncivil behaviors when compared to remote or hybrid workplaces.”
How inadequate RTO affects team dynamics?
As Kochanek and Lowe highlighted, when employees don’t understand the gist of RTO policies, they use coffee badging as a workplace strategy to fulfill the form — by swiping their badge, grabbing a coffee, ensuring to be seen in the office, and then rushing to work remotely. Therefore, instead of fostering teamwork and collaboration, RTO might hamper it.
If people are checking in just to be seen, says Kochanek, they don’t see the real value in being onsite:
“That impacts team dynamics, too, collaboration becomes more transactional, and the sense of shared purpose starts to slip. When in-person time is driven by obligation instead of intent, it’s hard to build the kind of culture that fuels innovation and trust.’’
Kochanek adds that coffee badging also indicates a “disconnect between leadership intentions and employee experience.”
Further reading
If you feel you need to improve employee experience in your organization, try following these tips:
According to Darian Shimy, CEO at FutureFund, this workplace trend can also create “inconsistency in team dynamics — some show up, others don’t, and the in-person advantage gets watered down.”
In line with this claim, Smith adds that coffee badging can create “division and animosity in work groups, especially. Because there are those employees doing it, those who wish they had the nerve to do it, and those who would never imagine doing it.”
Finally, Lowe says that the emergence of coffee badgers indicates a bigger workplace issue:
“The environment lacks direction. Collaboration doesn’t happen just because people are under the same roof. It happens when teams understand their goals, have clarity in roles, and feel like their time — whether in-person or remote — actually matters.”
Further reading
Good employee collaboration takes more than just being in office — it takes good tools as well. CAKE.com Productivity Suite can help you boost team productivity, communication and collaboration:
How to implement an RTO policy without causing coffee badging?
If your company is planning to introduce a mandatory RTO, whether hybrid or full-time, there are several things you should consider.
Firstly, ground the office-time policy in clarity and collaboration, advises Anu Mandapati, HR expert, CEO, and Founder of Qultured. As she says, in that case, employees will stop coffee badging and “start showing up with intention.”
She advises organizations to design RTO policies that are:
- “Co-created with employee input,
- Anchored in trust and business alignment, and
- Designed around the work, not outdated assumptions about where work happens.”
Mandapati indicates that when RTO mandates are established this way, “people want to be in the office for moments that matter — team huddles, mentoring, innovation, and collaboration bursts. Engagement goes up because the environment supports both focus and flexibility.”
Next, Mandapati advises avoiding vague expectations such as “just be in three days a week. If teams aren’t aligned on which days, why they’re coming in, or what they’re doing, it creates more confusion than cohesion.”
Finally, when establishing RTO policies, she advises leaders to:
- “Define ‘moments that matter’ — what truly requires face time,
- Set team-level agreements on how and when to gather, and
- Make in-person time meaningful through intentional design — don’t just bring people in, bring them together.”
As Kochanek rightfully notes, it’s becoming clear that ”productivity isn’t tied to location as much as it is to clarity, purpose, and autonomy.”
He adds that the hybrid model can work well if it’s treated as a “strategy, not a compromise. When companies get it right, employees don’t feel the need to badge in and bounce. They feel genuinely connected, whether they’re onsite or remote.’’
Focus on purpose instead of presence
If your company plans to reinforce a mandatory RTO policy after years of remote work, chances are employees might resist. Whether through coffee badging, quiet quitting, or other workplace trends, they’ll find a way to demonstrate their dissatisfaction.
However, you could decrease defiance if you create a smart RTO policy based on clarity and purpose rather than pure control.
“In my honest opinion, mandating office presence without a meaningful reason leads to surface-level compliance, not performance. The most productive environments I’ve seen are ones that optimize for flexibility, trust, and clarity of expectations — regardless of location”, concludes Shimmy.