Amazon is fighting back after its workers found a clever new way to dodge its return-to-office mandate, which requires employees to work from the office at least three days a week.
After the mandate was first announced in February 2023, it sparked fierce pushback from employees who even scheduled a series of walkouts to protest the change. Amazon later threatened to withhold job promotions from employees who refused to adhere to the mandate and began tracking employee badge swipes in office buildings.
Related: Dell workers ignore return-to-office mandate
Since then, some employees have reportedly begun hopping on a new workplace trend that allows them to obey the RTO mandate technically, but not in the way that the company wants them to.
The trend of coffee badging is when employees swipe their badges into the office and only stay long enough for a cup of coffee or to attend a meeting. Employees exit the office only after a few hours of attendance so that they can continue working elsewhere. The trend allows employees to maintain control over their work-life balance while fulfilling their employer’s requirement to work in the office.
In response to the growing trend, Amazon has reportedly begun tracking the number of hours employees spend in the office.
The retailer has allegedly started to require employees to spend at least two hours in the office for each visit in order to count as office attendance, according to a new report from Business Insider. A few teams at the company have even been instructed to stay in the office for at least six hours each day that they visit.
In a series of Slack messages, which was obtained by Insider, employees at Amazon expressed frustration with the new in-office time requirement.
"Remember when we were measured on metrics that actually mattered?" wrote one employee in a Slack message.
"It's all just so not transparent, it's maddening," wrote another employee on Slack.
Despite employees attending the office more frequently, Amazon has also begun talking to employees who are failing to spend enough time in the office.
"Now that it's been more than a year, we're starting to speak directly with employees who haven't regularly been spending meaningful amounts of time in the office to ensure they understand the importance of spending quality time with their colleagues," said an Amazon spokesperson in a statement to Insider.
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So far, more than half of hybrid employees in America participate in coffee badging. According to a recent survey from Owl Labs, about 58% of hybrid employees participate in the trend, and 63% of those who coffee badge are millennials.
Amazon isn’t the only company that has ramped up enforcement of its RTO policy after running into challenges with employees.
Related: Leaked document reveals Amazon's return-to-office mandate just got nastier
Dell, for example, recently rolled out a color-coded system in May that allegedly rates employees based on four different colors that measure how consistent they are with following the company’s RTO mandate. Dell employees are also required to work from the office three days a week, and their attendance is tracked through badge swipes and VPN connections.
Even though Dell has made the enforcement of its office mandate more strict, it is still losing the battle against remote work. Half of its employees are reportedly ignoring the RTO policy and continuing to work from home full-time.
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