Coffee Badging and Control: Why Your RTO Policy Might Be Brewing Trouble

There’s a significant struggle happening in America right now, and it revolves around coffee – specifically, where employees choose to drink it.  While employers prefer staff to caffeinate at work, some workers (known in TikTok circles as ‘coffee badgers’) are using office coffee runs as an excuse to clock in and immediately leave.  This technical compliance with return-to-work (RTO) mandates reveals a bigger problem than your company’s choice of beans! 

Grappling with RTO Mandates

If you haven’t heard of it yet, coffee badging is just another post-pandemic term that evolved when employers began issuing return-to-office (RTO) requirements.  These trends, like Quiet Quitting, Loud Layoffs, and Bare Minimum Mondays, reflect today’s conflict between traditional workforce management and new employer-employee power dynamics.  

And the struggle isn’t over.  In September, CBS News reported that Amazon will initiate a five-day RTO policy beginning in January.  Disney now requires four days in-office, and JP Morgan has at least three days and takes attendance. 

 The question for employers in a time of continuing low unemployment is how to approach this problem organizationally. 

Three Possible Solutions

On the surface, you have three options:

1. Crackdown.  Implement stricter badge monitoring systems.  Clarify workplace expectations and rewards.  Basically, this is the Elon Musk approach.  As he has reportedly said to his employees, “commit to extremely hardcore” work.  While this approach has unarguably produced extreme productivity and innovation, resulting in groundbreaking technological achievements like SpaceX’s Falcon rocket and Starlink, it is likely not sustainable or transferable to companies with less exciting product lines. 
2. Compromise.  Allow employees who fulfill their in-office obligations to work flexibly or on specific days as long as productivity is not impacted.  For this to work, supervisors need to track output and in-office attendance. 
3. Collaborate.  Embrace the hegemony of the 21^st-century workforce.  Let people work how, when, and where they like.  Anticipate potential individual and organizational consequences and use a participative management style.  The upside is that many workers, particularly Gen Z, seem happier without the stress and costs of commuting, office distractions, and lack of control over their daily schedules and work environment. 

The challenge for organizations may be switching to a high-involvement management/participative management style, difficulties building effective remote teams, lack of face-to-face mentorship, culture-building, and possibly higher productivity costs due to technology needs, job tracking, and productivity or performance losses. 

The Strategic Importance of Flexibility and Participative Management

By 2025, Gen Z is projected to comprise  30% of the U.S. workforce.  Additionally, 57% of workers already have flexible work arrangements.  Therefore, compromising on flexible work and collaborating to achieve organizational success in a 21^st-century paradigm seem to be the most logical options as we advance.  

One study supporting both options is a groundbreaking 2024 article published in the South African Journal of Human Resource Management that revealed crucial insights into maximizing Gen Z employee productivity through workplace flexibility and participation.  Researchers Febriana and Mujib surveyed 259 Gen Z tech workers and found that flexible work arrangements (FWAs) and participative management styles directly increased employee productivity.  While FWAs (like flexible hours and work locations) directly boosted productivity, they surprisingly didn’t increase emotional engagement.

That’s where revisiting participative management approaches as the preferred leadership style may fill the gaps that remote work sometimes creates.  Participative leadership behavior is characterized by sharing essential information openly, actively seeking input from team members, and ensuring decisions emerge from group discussion rather than top-down mandates.  The study supports giving Gen Z workers a voice in decisions and problem-solving.   These management behaviors both increased productivity and strengthened emotional engagement.  The study showed that when Gen Z employees feel emotionally connected to their work, they demonstrate higher productivity, suggesting that companies should focus on flexibility and meaningful participation to get the best results from their youngest workers.  This research is particularly relevant as Gen Z has become an increasingly dominant force in the workforce, with distinct preferences for flexibility and autonomy compared to previous generations.

In conclusion, as we pour over the evidence, it’s clear that the solution to coffee badging isn’t about forcing everyone back to the office coffee pot.  Instead, successful organizations are finding ways to blend flexibility with meaningful involvement.  The research shows that Gen Z workers, who will soon represent nearly a third of your workforce, respond best to a mix of freedom and genuine participation.

Ready to move beyond coffee badging?  Begin by assessing your current management style and identifying opportunities for more employee participation in decision-making and information sharing.  After all, the best workplace solutions, like the best coffee, are crafted through attention to both process and preferences.

Source:

Febriana, A., & Mujib, M. (2024). Increasing Productivity of Gen Z Employees: The Role of Flexible Work Arrangements and Participative Style.  South African Journal of Human Resource Management, 22(3)