New ‘coffee badging’ job trend has some business leaders on high alert

Published

2 years ago

December 20, 2023

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In post-pandemic times, many employers and companies are continuing to mandate a return to the office for their workers and some employees are responding with a particular form of pushback.

First, there was the trend “quiet quitting,” in which workers did the bare minimum on the job just to get by and now, say workplace leaders and experts, theres “coffee badging,” another form of employee protest.

Read on to learn about this career trend, how it’s impacting offices across the nation and what actions can be taken in response to it.

As some employees are being called back to the office, many are subtly protesting by returning to the office for as little time as possible, Frank Weishaupt, CEO of Owl Labs in Boston, told FOX Business.

“Coffee badging is 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,” said Weishaupt.

His firm, Owl Labs, which makes 360 video conferencing devices, did a deep dive into the trend’s data.

“Our 2023 State of Hybrid Work report found that only about 1 in 5 workers (22%) want to be in the office full time, with 37% wanting hybrid work options and 41% preferring to be fully remote,” said Weishaupt.

Further, he said the Owl Labs study found that more than half (58%) of hybrid workers are “coffee badging,” while another 8% said they haven’t done it yet but would like to try it.

People at all levels of companies and organizations are busy with their own jobs, so they dont have time to keep tabs on everyone elses whereabouts, said Weishaupt.

“If a coffee badger doesnt have any in-person meetings or a desk near the boss, the person might not be missed,” he said.

“Our data shows that about two-thirds of managers (64%) have coffee badged themselves, with another 6% who want to try it,” he also said.

“Less than a third of managers (30%) want to go to the office for the full day.”

Niki Jorgensen, managing director of client implementation with Insperity in Denver, told FOX Business that several months ago, coffee badging began making news as the latest work trend.

“Coffee badging is simply the latest example of the challenges businesses are facing with transitioning employees back to the office after the pandemic,” she said.

It’s important for each business to do its own research into coffee badging, Jorgensen suggested.

“There is no need to panic over coffee banging, yet if a business finds most of its employees are coffee badging, that could reflect the need to reevaluate their organization’s culture and work-from-home policies,” she told FOX Business.

Often, but not always, coffee badging is a reflection of employee dissatisfaction with an organizations culture or hybrid policies, said Jorgensen.

“Coffee badging can seem disrespectful or even insubordinate to business leaders who expect their employees to spend a full day in the office,” she said.

Yet “it’s important to understand that the motivations for coffee badging are rarely ill-intentioned,” she clarified.

“In many cases, employees are coffee badging because they want to improve their work-life balance.”

Company managers may want to focus on a few strategies to halt coffee badging among employees, Jorgensen said.

“To combat it, invite employees to speak up about their experience in the workplace and share solutions to help them balance their work and personal lives more easily,” she said.

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When the practice becomes too widespread among employees, the trend can detract from organizational culture, Jorgensen indicated.

“When workers only come into the office briefly and then leave, they are not spending as much time interacting face to face,” she told FOX Business.

“Over time, this can undermine relationship-building and reduce collaboration.”

Emily Ballesteros, founder of Burnout Management, LLC, in Seattle and author of the upcoming book, “The Cure for Burnout: How to Find Balance and Reclaim Your Life” (Feb. 2024), told FOX Business that a downside to the coffee badging trend is that it creates unpredictability that can impact others.

“Trying to schedule meetings when you’re unsure of who is virtual or in-person; planning around commutes to and from the office; needing clarification on whether a meeting is virtual or in-person, etc. all of this adds a bit more unpredictability to the workday that can cause frustration,” Ballesteros said.

To reduce unpredictability, many companies are introducing hybrid schedules.

“They have seen on surveys that their employees would like the flexibility to work from home sometimes,” she said.

“So rather than have constant flux and unpredictability around who is where, they create a schedule that meets people in the middle, such as saying that everyone works from home Monday and Friday and everyone is in the office Tuesday-Thursday,” noted Ballesteros.

“Where there is unrest, there is usually a need to be met.”

Sports

NASCAR: Lawsuit about forcing permanent charter

Published

1 hour ago

August 19, 2025

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NASCAR: Lawsuit about forcing permanent charter

Associated Press

Aug 19, 2025, 03:38 PM ET

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — NASCAR argued in its latest court filing that Michael Jordan is suing the stock car series to earn a permanent charter that no other teams possess, and that neither 23XI Racing nor Front Row Motorsports has suffered any harm by racing as “open” entries.

NASCAR also indicated in its 34-page response filed late Monday that it has buyers interested in the six charters that have been set aside as a federal judge decides if the two teams can have them back for the remaining 11 races of this season. NASCAR is prepared to immediately begin the process of allocating the charters elsewhere.

These latest arguments are part of the ongoing federal antitrust lawsuit filed by 23XI and Front Row against NASCAR in a fight over charters, which are essentially franchise tags. 23XI, owned by retired basketball Hall of Famer Michael Jordan and three-time Daytona 500 winner Denny Hamlin, and Front Row, owned by entrepreneur Bob Jenkins, were the only two organizations out of 15 not to sign extensions on new charter agreements.

All the teams were fighting to have the charters made permanent during more than two years of extension negotiations, but NASCAR refused and its final offer was through 2031. 23XI and Front Row won a temporary injunction to be recognized as chartered as the case heads toward a Dec. 1 trial date.

The injunction was eventually overturned, appealed by the teams, and U.S. District Judge Kenneth Bell will hear arguments Aug. 28 on the matter. 23XI and Front Row as “open” teams do not receive the same financial percentages as chartered teams.

A rulebook change in July after the chartered status was stripped from the two organizations ensured that the six cars aren’t in danger of not qualifying for a race; starting spots are guaranteed to the 36 chartered cars in every 40-car field.

“Mr. Jordan has said he wants to use the litigation to grant him a permanent Charter that no other team has,” NASCAR alleged.

23XI and Front Row have maintained they will continue to race even if they must do so as open teams. NASCAR has argued that when the two organizations did not sign the extensions they lost all rights to charters and the sanctioning body should be free to move them.

“Plaintiffs’ theoretical inability to obtain Charters post-trial also does not justify NASCAR from selling or transferring Charters, because Plaintiffs do not have Charters now because of their own strategic choice,” NASCAR said in its filing. “Plaintiffs had multiple opportunities to acquire 2025 Charters, and they squandered them.”

NASCAR also argued that a court cannot order the private company into a partnership with teams it is not interested in doing business with. Another argument by NASCAR is that 23XI and Front Row have not been harmed by not being chartered because their drivers have not left the team and the rule change protects them from missing races; Tyler Reddick of 23XI has clauses in his contract that he can leave if his car is not chartered.

Additionally, NASCAR said it pays teams a higher percentage than even Formula 1 does and that its payout structure to teams proves it is not a monopoly because it was increased first by 28% in the 2016 charter agreement, and then by 62% in the 2025 agreement.

“NASCAR pays Teams more than even Formula 1 as a percentage of profit,” NASCAR said. “Plaintiffs ignore the pay raises the Teams received. Instead, they focus on a text during negotiations for the 2025 Charter that said an internal version of the May 2024 draft contained ‘zero wins’ for Teams.

“Plaintiffs ignore that the actual May 2024 draft proposed to Teams carried forward the biggest win for the Teams — a massive pay increase — that was set out in the December 2023 draft. It also gave Charter holders an opportunity to obtain any improved extension terms NASCAR offered to third parties and increased Teams’ ability to receive investor funding, among other benefits.”

World

Ukrainian diplomat involved in 90s nuclear deal with Russia warns Trump about ‘very big mistake’ with Putin

Published

1 hour ago

August 19, 2025

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Ukrainian diplomat involved in 90s nuclear deal with Russia warns Trump about 'very big mistake' with Putin

Ukrainians have given a lukewarm reaction to this week’s White House summit.

There is bafflement and unease here after US President Donald Trump switched sides to support his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, dropping calls for a ceasefire and proposing that Ukraine surrender territory.

While allies are talking up the prospects of progress, people here remain unconvinced.

Ukraine war latest – Trump rules out using US troops

The Trump administration’s contradictory statements on possible security guarantees are causing concern here.

MP Lesia Vasylenko told Sky News it is not at all clear what the allies have in mind.

“Who is going to be there backing Ukraine in case Russia decides to revisit their imperialistic plans and strategies and in case they want to restart this war of aggression?”

For many Ukrainians, there is a troubling sense of deja vu.

In the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, Ukraine agreed to give up not land but its nuclear arsenal, inherited from the Soviet Union, in return for security assurances from Russia and other powers.

They know how that ended up to their enormous cost. Putin reneged on Russia’s side of the bargain, with his invasion of Crimea in 2014 and once again with his full-scale attack three and a half years ago.

We met veteran Ukrainian diplomat Yuri Kostenko, who helped lead those negotiations in the 90s.

He said there is a danger the world makes the same mistake and trusts Vladimir Putin when he says he wants to stop the killing, something Mr Trump said he now believes.

👉 Listen to Sky News Daily on your podcast app 👈        

“It’s not true, it’s not true, Russia never, never, it’s my practices in more than 30 years, Russia never stop their aggression plans to occupy all Ukraine and I think that Mr Trump, if he really believes Mr Putin, it will be a very big mistake, Mr Trump, a very big mistake.”

Before the Alaska summit, allies agreed the best path to peace was forcing Mr Putin to stop his invasion, hitting him where it hurts with severe sanctions on his oil trade.

But Mr Trump has given up calls for a ceasefire and withdrawn threats to impose those tougher sanctions.

Instead, he has led allies down a different and more uncertain path.

Ukrainians we met on the streets of Kyiv said they would love to believe in progress more than anything, but are not encouraged by what they are hearing.

While the diplomacy moves on in an unclear direction, events on the ground and in the skies above Ukraine are depressingly predictable.

Russia is continuing hundreds of drone attacks every night, and its forces are advancing on the front.

If Vladimir Putin really wants this war to end, he’s showing no sign of it, while Ukrainians fear Donald Trump is taking allies down a blind alley of fruitless diplomacy.

US

Ukrainian diplomat involved in 90s nuclear deal with Russia warns Trump about ‘very big mistake’ with Putin

Published

1 hour ago

August 19, 2025

admin

Ukrainians have given a lukewarm reaction to this week’s White House summit.

While allies are talking up the prospects of progress, people here remain unconvinced.

Ukraine war latest – Trump rules out using US troops

The Trump administration’s contradictory statements on possible security guarantees are causing concern here.

MP Lesia Vasylenko told Sky News it is not at all clear what the allies have in mind.

“Who is going to be there backing Ukraine in case Russia decides to revisit their imperialistic plans and strategies and in case they want to restart this war of aggression?”

For many Ukrainians, there is a troubling sense of deja vu.

In the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, Ukraine agreed to give up not land but its nuclear arsenal, inherited from the Soviet Union, in return for security assurances from Russia and other powers.

We met veteran Ukrainian diplomat Yuri Kostenko, who helped lead those negotiations in the 90s.

He said there is a danger the world makes the same mistake and trusts Vladimir Putin when he says he wants to stop the killing, something Mr Trump said he now believes.

👉 Listen to Sky News Daily on your podcast app 👈        

Before the Alaska summit, allies agreed the best path to peace was forcing Mr Putin to stop his invasion, hitting him where it hurts with severe sanctions on his oil trade.

But Mr Trump has given up calls for a ceasefire and withdrawn threats to impose those tougher sanctions.

Instead, he has led allies down a different and more uncertain path.

Ukrainians we met on the streets of Kyiv said they would love to believe in progress more than anything, but are not encouraged by what they are hearing.

While the diplomacy moves on in an unclear direction, events on the ground and in the skies above Ukraine are depressingly predictable.

Russia is continuing hundreds of drone attacks every night, and its forces are advancing on the front.

If Vladimir Putin really wants this war to end, he’s showing no sign of it, while Ukrainians fear Donald Trump is taking allies down a blind alley of fruitless diplomacy.