to be "coffee badging" when I'm working from home

[pearlbeach]

Just read something on social about the 'new' trend of coffee badging - where you go into the office, grab a coffee, get seen by your boss and then leave to work from home - but ...loads of people log on to their work computer when they're WFH, fire off an email, go to one teams meeting, then leave and put the washing on, etc...during work hours. It's basically coffee badging from home??? Personally, my number one job that I get done when I WFH is the washing (would be higher than bunkbeds if I went into the office). I do get my paid work done. But AIBU to do life/home stuff as well, am I coffee badging from home?

Coffee badging sounds daft. What if your boss is then looking for you an hour later because they have a question & think you’re in that day?

Depends on the company/role. MN believes you should be glued to the computer every moment of WFH so you'll be slaughtered shortly 😂

My company (Financial Tech) prides itself on being very flexible. I'll happily say, 'oh, popping off to do some laundry/do the school run/get some groceries' and no one will bat an eye. But I'll also work longer hours if there's something important to be done, so it evens out. I don't keep a log though! As a rule of thumb, if you'd be happy for your boss to know what you're doing (and they'd be happy), you're fine.

🙄

Most workplaces are focused on output, not input. Nobody in my management cares what I do in non-contact hours. I have a set number of contact hours per week and the rest is "admin time". I can take 3h or 20 minutes a day to do admin depending on how much there is to get through. On lighter days, I use my time to do other things. Inevitably, there will be days where I suddenly have 16 reports to write and will be staying behind to do it.

Ugh not another one of these threads.

Let me just give you all the common answers:

• Sticking the kettle on and doing a minor household chores while it boils is good and likely works as a movement break away from the screen.
• If you were working in the office you would lose more time chatting to colleagues.
• You can multi task in long All Staff calls where you are not required to participate, taking a movement break / do the ironing in front of the screen etc
• You likely work later at home logging in in the evening to finish something off whereas would have left the Office at 5pm
• Managing your own diary means you can block out (unclaimed/unpaid) time in the day for personal errands

Negatives

• This country is going to the dogs as all the feckless homeworkers do fuck all

You are massively fucking unreasonable to use a ridiculous term as "coffee badgeing", get off TikTok and do some work

Agreed! Days I’m in the office my boss would probably expect to see me for at least a few hours, maybe do lunch with the team or a face to face team meeting.

Also can’t be arsed to go all the way to work, get office ready, pay for transport etc just for a coffee.

It does sound ridiculous - why both to travel into the office, which is the main thing a lot of people dislike, and then go away again?

It does sound like it’s a real thing tbh

This sounds like complete nonsense. What happens after you have shown your face in the office? You get in your car/on the train/whatever and go home again? What happens when you get a call from the boss or are asked to do some work but can't because you are driving for 30 mins? Not only are you pretending to be in the office but you are wasting work time on a commute which should be in your own time?

The only bit I struggle with about being in the office is the part where I have to leave my warm house and get on my bicycle to get there, so I can’t see the point of this at all. Once I’m actually there I just enjoy the warmth and the bonus of the free coffee and food and get on as normal.

Some people do this in my office. They tend to stay in the office till lunchtime then head home and log back on. No idea if they've agreed this with their manager or not.

1. My commute is an hour and a half each way. It’s the biggest negative about working in the office. No way am I going straight home after I arrive.
2. Coffee badging makes no grammatical sense and doesn’t explain the concept of having a coffee and leaving at all.
3. Also we have the shit Nescafé, it’s not even Gold Blend, no way am I coming all the way in for that.

I’ve noticed this. I wonder what sort of roles people do that lead them to be so scared of flexibility and the ‘overlords’. Most corporates I know of are hyper flexible. Or perhaps they’re just lower down the ladder? No idea. My company doesn’t care how you manage your time, so long as your results are good. I’m a consultant now so I charge a lot, do considerably less than I used to, and do it when I fancy. 😬 it does feel like a postal sometimes but they’re very happy and so am I.

This sounds like some kind of TikTok nonsense.

I find it hard to believe that many people actually do that. I'd notice immediately if one of my team disappeared and didn't come back!

My husband does 'coffee badging', because his company has brought in mandatory office days but his managers don't agree with it since some people including my husband have a 5 hour round trip commute so they tell people who come into the office that they can leave at lunch.
When he WFH he goes to the gym in his lunch break, I put the washing on before I leave in the morning and he takes 5 minutes to pop it in the tumble dryer in the afternoon. I don't think these things impact his productivity!

I fully believed this is nonsense posted for the purpose of froth or copy.

Frothycopycoffee badging

Has any of us here…anyone…anyone…Bueller…anyone…got a single original thought to post here on the subject of WFH?

I've never read anything on here that sounded so much like poor quality journalism in the making.

The boss doesn't care that they saw you having coffee for two minutes. They care when there's an urgent new job or meeting or something happens and they are expecting you to be physically present. And you're not.
If you're never required for such things then why waste your time and effort commuting to and from an office to stay for five minutes? Ridiculous.

Coffee badging? What a nauseating phrase and load of nonsense. There is absolutely no need to ‘show your face’ where I work.

Of course people wfh are going to do ‘home’ things. It’s a given and not something even worthy of comment. We have an agile working policy and we’re encouraged to be just that - agile. The days of clocking in and out and having set breaks are, thankfully, behind us.

I manage a team and, apart from the admin staff who work office hours in order to man the phones, I do not care what my staff are doing at any given hour. Nor do I check up on them. We are output driven now. If they work 37 hours or 27 is not relevant. That they meet their targets and get their work done is what matters. I have my 1-2-1 with my director later, she’s already warned me she might be late as she’s getting her hair done.

Most of my staff are site based and work alone, the only thing I ask is that they say they’re back from site on either teams or a text so I know they’re safe.

Of course I put the washing on when I work from home. It's not like I have to take it down to the river with a bar of soap and rub each item on a washboard.

Depends if the business you work for is outcome based or output based. Outcome based means if you produce the desired outcome and the goal is reached within deadline, how and when you do that is up to you. Output based businesses want to see outputs, number of calls, numbers of emails sent etc.

The post barely makes sense to me! And in what sense is the word "badge" being used here?

A pendant xx

Sigh. No. If you're the kind of tosser who takes advantage you'll do it anywhere. If you are conscientious then you will do your work and putting on a couple loads of washing takes v little time.
Who wants to work in the kind of job where you can't take a couple of minutes for yourself/life shit "in work hours." I wouldn't do that kind of job in the office or out.