What does coffee badging say about work culture today?

We’re in a strange time when it comes to office culture. Since the pandemic, more businesses than ever have been offering full remote work or some form of hybrid, flexible work. Many employees, Villani explains, aren’t quite ready for a return to full-time office life.

“Office workers have become so accustomed to working from home and have missed out on office interactions for so long, that popping in for a coffee could be the first step to getting used to a commute, getting used to office chit chat again and generally reintegrating with office life,” she says of the coffee badging trend. “Workers are showing up to offices out of obligation with office-day mandates coming into play now, but hopefully this can be the first step to people reintegrating and coming to appreciate working in an office and then coming for full days of their own volition.”

On the other hand, the trend also points to a more negative aspect of modern work culture, suggesting that “going into the office feels like a chore and something to be avoided at all costs”, which, Villani claims, “we desperately need to snap out of as a society”.

Coffee badging: the trend that sees us nipping into the office just for a coffee