SUMMARY POINTS

  • Coffee badging is showing up to work for a coffee and hanging out
  • It’s important to coffee badge into work to show your face and build relationships
  • Coffee badging is more about social interaction than an attendance workaround
Working remotely is a godsend. No more time wasted and putting up with agonizing stressful commutes to and from the office. You can sleep in a little more in the morning, roll out of bed and work from home in your fav PJs or if you’re really daring, work pantless. It’s truly amazing. Big thumbs up to WiFi and the internet.

And if your WFH setup is optimized, you actually get more shit done at home than you do at the office. Hell, sometimes you are so in the zone with work that you forget to hit the circuit breaker to end the day and you work right through the evening.

For all of us white-collar corporate slaves, working from home just makes so much sense. It maximizes our productivity while also allowing for flexibility during the day to take care of other personal shit that pops up.

The unfortunate thing is that not all empty suit executives see it that way. A lot of companies have now instituted a hybrid working format where employees are now required to come into the office several days out of the week.

Yeah, it sucks but there’s a way to make this work to your benefit. It’s called “Coffee Badging” and it’s a great solution to satisfy in-office requirements.

What Is Coffee Badging Anyway?

Nowadays, nearly every company requires employees to wear a badge. It’s a standard issue and one of the first things you get on day one of employment. Some wear their badge like a necklace on a lanyard while others go with a belt clip style. There are a bunch of ways you can wear your ID badge to boost your style.

The ID badge also serves as a digital timecard to document when employees arrive and leave work. So yes, you are being tracked.

Way back in the day, employees would “clock in” at work in the mornings by inserting a timecard into a machine that would stamp the time on the timecard. Then, at the end of the day, employees would “clock out” at the same machine to mark the time when they finished work.

The Looney Tunes duo of Ralph Wolf and Sam Sheepdog clocked in and out of work for years together.

VIDEO: Mornin’ Ralph Mornin’ Sam
YOUTUBE: Itclassics
LENGTH: 2:39
Now, when you really don’t want to go into the office, but you’re required to, either informally or formally, you gotta “badge in” so that the system documents your attendance and others see you.

Coffee badging is the act of showing up at work for a cup of coffee to satisfy the “in office” requirements. You badge in at work to grab a coffee. Then, you head back home and work remotely for the rest of the day. It’s merely to satisfy attendance.

Why Coffee Badging Is Important & How To Maximize Its Benefits

For most people who prefer to work remotely from home (‘cause ya’ know more shit gets done), having to trudge into the office is annoying as fuck. However, when coffee badging is done right, it provides intangible benefits to your project progress and is a significant influence on your personal brand at work.

Your working relationships with coworkers have a huge impact on your work. Think of all the programs and projects that depend upon contributions from others. Without their input, feedback and/or direction, you can’t move forward. It becomes really hard to keep the momentum going.

When you have strong bonds and alliances at work, it makes your work life easier because you get the shit you need to complete tasks and milestones. When you have weak relationships, you’re not a priority. Your emails just fall into a black hole. Getting what you need from unresponsive coworkers is a royal pain in the ass.

Think of it from the other side. Do you drop whatever you’re doing to provide a low-priority reply to the office asshole or do you brush it off until you have time?

You’re not going to go out of your way to help assholes. You’ll get to it when you get to it. And this is all because of the type of relationship you have with that work jerk. Nobody wants to help assholes at work.

However, if your work BFF is in dire need of some help, you’re gonna step up and help out ‘cause you know they’d do the same for you. Positive working relationships are the key to making significant progress. When you have support from others, you get shit done faster.

One of the best ways to build and maintain positive relationships is to have some good ol’ fashioned face time. When you’re able to have in-person face-to-face time with others at work, you build positive office karma. And this is what helps to solidify current strong bonds and strengthen weaker ones.

This is why coffee badging a few times a week to grab some coffee at work and see others is so important. It’s all about face time. You’re there to see others and build and maintain those relationships. And just like any other relationship, when you don’t devote the time to it, it will deteriorate over time.

The key thing here is that you don’t want to just show up, gulp down a cup of coffee and then bolt back home. Everyone will see that you’re just skirting the policy by doing the bare minimum to comply. This kind of behavior will tank your reputation and credibility.

The best thing to do is to coffee badge into work, catch up with your boss if they’re in and spend some time with your fellow coworkers, particularly the ones who are directly involved with your projects. By focusing on these key relationships, you’ll be maximizing the face time with those who have the most positive impact on your progress at work.

Maintaining strong positive relationships with your boss and coworkers will not only improve your overall productivity, it will also make your office life easier and more enjoyable.

Coffee Badge Into Work & The Keep Good Vibes Going

Nobody enjoys having to deal with asshole drivers on the commute to and from work. If fact, any kind of commute sucks simply for the reason that it’s a total waste of time. Well, at least it can seem that way on the surface.

Working remotely has tremendous benefits. And, it’s been proven many times over that productivity actually increases when work can be done remotely without the office noises and distractions.

However, there is one disadvantage with working remotely. There is no in-person face-to-face interaction which is crucial for keeping the good vibes going. Yes, you can meet with others online via video calls, but it’s not the same as in-person interactions. It doesn’t have the same impact and value.

So, if you’re required to go into the office a few times a week and your company allows for some degree of flexibility, then it’s a good idea to do some coffee badging during the week - the right way.

See it as a nice change of pace from the same four walls you stare at home. You get to hang out with your fav peeps, have some fun at work and knock out some key grunt work. When you can reset your mindset and perspective to a more positive one, it makes it much easier to manage work stress which in turn will improve your overall well-being.

Now, if only the company would replace the shitty office coffee with something more decent, that’ll make coffee badging even better.

Feel Better,
[Cubicle|Therapy]

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