Now you see me, now you don’t...
. Coffee badging is the new workplace trend or excuse rolling itself out as a backlash against return-to-office mandates, a hybrid work hangover, and a quiet rebellion against what employees have started to view as old-fashioned policies. It’s the art of being visible without being present, where staff drop by the office just long enough to check roll call and then sneak home.
Carmen Murray is an ethnographer who studies online communities and behaviours by analysing digital interactions and content. She does this to understand social trends and cultural dynamics. It’s almost like a futurist, but based on reality, not assumption.
“After years of working from home, uninterrupted by commutes and office distractions, the demand to return to cubicles and desks has not been as smooth as employers may have wanted,” said Murray. “Coffee badging is a workplace trend that’s surfaced as a reaction to organisational policies,” she explained. “In a recent LinkedIn poll, 19% of over 1 500 respondents admitted to coffee badging.
We see a clear divide between those who have adapted to hybrid work and those who resist its more restrictive iterations.” Employees are brewing more than just complaints Discussions about coffee badging reveal a polarised workforce. Murray analysed online discourse, identifying frustration as the dominant emotional cause.
“Half of the sentiment we analysed was negative,” she said. “Control and trust issues .
