Coffee Badging Is Dying As Companies Ramp Up Spying

Last year, the term “coffee badging” was coined to describe employees who showed up to in-office work simply to appear as if they were working in the physical space, before leaving to get the real work done remotely.

Now, the folks behind the original study that launched the term have released their 2024 report: According to Owl Labs, coffee badging is down 24% since last year.

At the same time, the presence of employee tracking software — which can let managers know exactly when their employees are in the office — has risen, with 48% of employees reporting their workplace uses some form of the technology.

Are People Still Coffee Badging?

Coffee badges are still being handed out, but at lower rates. According to Owl Labs’ State of Hybrid Work 2024, which surveyed 2,000 full-time white collar workers in the US about their work habits and environment, the US has undergone a bit of a coffee badge crackdown.

As noted above, the practice has dropped by 24% year-over-year. However, that doesn’t mean plenty of people aren’t relying on it to get them through their week: 44% of hybrid workers say they still do it.

How’s it working out for them? Well, 70% have been caught coffee badging by their bosses, so it’s not really a practice that’s easy to get away with very often. However, of those who were caught, 59% said their employers didn’t mind, compared to just 16% who say they’re now forced to stay in the office all day.

Perhaps the most fascinating new statistic from this report is that 75% of workers believe their employers’ expectations that they stick around in the office all day is “simply due to their traditional expectations” — a statistic that has jumped way up from just 9% who said the same in 2023.

Here’s how many employees report coffee badging in 2024. Source: Owl Labs.

Managers Are More Likely to Coffee Badge

Perhaps one of the reasons why so many coffee badgers are getting away without trouble even after their boss catches them? Because the bosses are even more likely to be doing the same thing. 47% of managers say they make an appearance but don’t spend their entire workday in the office, which is a solidly higher amount than the 34% of individual contributors who say the same.

Granted, this news won’t help middle managers shake certain unflattering stereotypes that tend to follow them around. However, the truth is that working remotely has plenty of upsides, and even managers can benefit from them.

We’ve highlight plenty of them at Tech.co in the past, from the higher productivity that tends to go along with increased remote work, to a boost in self-reported happiness for remote employees. Now, Owl Labs’ new report has a host of additional statistics to back up the value of working from home:

• 84% of hybrid and remote workers say they eat healthier food when working at home compared to when they work at the office.
• 38% of workers said they’d decline a job offer that required them to work in the office full-time.
• 90% of hybrid workers say they are just as, or more, productive when working in a hybrid format.
• 28% say that flexible working hours would be the most appealing work benefit a prospective employer could offer (that’s the second place result, after the 29% who picked better or more affordable health insurance, and tied with the 28% who chose increased 401K contributions)

Employee Monitoring Software Is Making Waves

There’s a dark side to the decline of coffee badging, however: It coincides with the increase of workplace surveillance software.

Close to half (46%) of workers polled reported that their companies had “increased usage of employee tracking software” in the past year. Since that’s a report of those who increased use, it indicates a sudden wave of interest in the technology just within the past 12 months.

That’s grim news for any employees wary of this type of automated micromanagement. A large majority of workers surveyed (86%) think that companies “should be legally required to disclose” if they’re using these tools.

Employee tracking software’s trajectory took the same path as remote work in general: It became popular suddenly in 2020, but has continued to remain a major force in US workplaces today. One survey at the time found that employees were unhappy with the technology for a range of reasons: 43% deemed it a violation of trust, 28% felt underappreciated, and 36% said the practice made them work longer hours.

In our own coverage of the technology’s rise, we interviewed marketer Saurabh Wani, who was monitored through screenshots from Hubstaff. “In terms of privacy, initially, I felt violated, but then I got used to it,” Wani told us.

Three days a week remains the favored amount for hybrid workers everywhere. Source: Owl Labs.

CEOs Aren’t Winning the Battle Against Remote Work

Tech company executives are still largely in favor of in-office work, with one study finding 64% of CEOs went on the record envisioning a future where their employees were back in the office five days a week. Another study backed this up in another way, finding that 86% of CEOs say they’d give better assignments, raises, or promotions to in-office workers to “reward” them.

Top tech companies are continuing the return-to-office push, with Amazon recently announcing a stringent 5-day in-office policy for all its workers, starting in early 2025. This might be unsurprising to anyone who noted the ecommerce titan’s approach to defeating coffee badging, since back in July Amazon mandated teams stayed for multiple hours when they visit its physical offices.

Yet Owl Labs’ new report indicates that remote work is thriving as we near the end of 2024, in contrast to CEO hopes and dreams.

Today, full-time in-office workers constitute 62% of the workforce, which is a slight 6% drop from last year. At the same time, 38% of workers are hybrid or remote, which marks a 15% increase year-over-year.

Employees would still prefer more remote time, with most hybrid workers who are clocking four days a week in the office saying they’d rather not go in that often.

If that’s you, we might be able to help: Check out our guide to asking your boss to let you work fully or partially remotely, as well as our suggestions for how to build the perfect resume to land you a new fully remote position. Just don’t bother asking anyone at Amazon.