coffee badging
/KAW-fee BADJ-ing/noun
Meaning
Coffee badging is the practice of visiting the workplace just long enough to register attendance, grab coffee, greet colleagues, or be seen, then leaving to complete most of the workday from home or another location.[1][2][3]
- 1. The practice of making a short, visibility-focused office appearance to satisfy or appear to satisfy an in-person attendance expectation.
- 2. A single brief office visit made mainly to register or display attendance before continuing the workday elsewhere.
Examples
“Coffee badging today—stand-up, latte, then back home.”
“Our team calls every two-hour office cameo coffee badging.”
“If badge swipes are all they track, coffee badging is inevitable.”
“I’m not skipping work; I’m coffee badging and finishing the report at home.”
Origin and spread
Owl Labs coined the modern expression for its 2023 State of Hybrid Work materials, released on September 29, 2023, using survey data collected that June. The compound joins coffee, suggesting a visit only long enough for a cup, with badging, the act of using an employee access badge to record entry. Coverage in workplace and business publications followed in October 2023, placing the term in the wider debate over hybrid schedules and return-to-office mandates. Later reporting also used the term for brief appearances at offices that do not literally track entry by badge.
How to use it
The term is informal and often wry or critical. Employees may use it jokingly for a quick office cameo, while managers may use it to suggest that someone is gaming an attendance policy. It usually implies that the person continues working remotely, so it is not automatically synonymous with skipping work or falsifying hours. Calling your own visit coffee badging can still sound like an admission that you ignored the intended office schedule.
Sources
- 1. Owl Labs — 2023 State of Hybrid Work is hereSupports: meaning, earliest documented use.
- 2. Computerworld — Faced with back-to-office mandates, employees are ‘coffee badging’ office visitsSupports: meaning, form.
- 3. Owl Labs — 2024 State of Hybrid Work ReportSupports: meaning.
