ARE YOU A COFFEE BADGER?

With employers trying to get workers back to the office, there’s a new trend emerging: “coffee badging.” (* No, not ‘coffee banging’; coffee BADGING.) Frank Weishaupt, CEO of Owl Labs in Boston, which makes video conferencing devices, has studied what he named “coffee badging”: when employees show up to the office for enough time to have a cup of coffee, show their face, and get a “badge swipe” — then go home to do the rest of their work. Mr. Weishaupt claims their study found:
– More than half (58%) of hybrid workers are coffee badging.
– 8% said they haven’t done it yet but would like to try it.
– Two-thirds of managers (64%) have coffee badged.
To fight coffee badging, here’s what employers should do: Implement flex hours and encourage employees to get together because employees want to socialize with one another.
* Well, that’s simple. Order everybody to make friends with everybody else. Why did no one think of this before?
* This coffee badging sounds like a George plot from Seinfeld.
* I complain to management all the time about our lousy coffee. It’s “coffee badgering.”
* What if Owl Labs is the only place coffee badging is happening because it’s a lousy place to work?
* Ah, the good ol’ days, when you could just go to the time clock and punch your buddies in and out.
* PHONE TOPIC: Do you ever go into work, make sure the boss sees you, and then sneak out?