Coffee badging

With many people still working remotely since the pandemic, it is not surprising that the practice of briefly showing up at work, typically long enough to be seen by the colleagues next to the office coffee machine, has become a thing. Trending as “coffee badging”, with more advanced versions including things like keeping the lights on or leaving a jacket behind on one’s chair, it reflects the tensions that remain to be resolved about where we work and for what purpose. 

Unlike in Umeå, where almost everyone at the department of political science also lived in the city, Halmstad University is in a situation where many students and faculty members commute, often from Gothenburg and Malmö/Lund respectively. Arriving at work shortly before eight this morning, I realized that my own behaviour would very much fit the description of coffee badging as I would have breakfast with the colleagues only to leave immediately after as I was teaching a class in another building, something which, for all practical purposes, would neverthless be indistinguishable from returning home. 

At the end of the day, I think much of this comes down to culture and critical mass, that if enough colleagues show up at work regularly, others will see the value and start doing the same, and vice versa. Yet, with 130 kilometres one way, it takes a lot of effort and money to be the one spending three or four hours per day travelling only to be met with deserted offices.