Employees push back against new rule for office attendance
Amazon is looking to have workers not just report in the office more often – but spend meaningful time there.
The American multinational technology company is now monitoring the hours that corporate employees spend in the office in an attempt to nip “coffee badging” in the bud, reports Business Insider (BI).
The term refers to the act of some workers showing their face at the office and then leaving.
In recent months, the employer has told several teams across the company – including retail and cloud-computing units – that they must spend at least two hours in the office for the company to count their attendance, according to the BI report.
Meanwhile, some teams have been told to stay at least six hours per visit.
Nearly six in 10 (58 per cent) of workers admit to coffee badging, according to a previous report by videoconferencing company Owl Labs.
Employers should not be forcing workers to report back to the workplace, according to DropBox CEO Drew Houston.
Workers criticize Amazon’s new office rule
The new rule to combat coffee badging does not sit well with some Amazon workers, according to BI’s report that cites workers’ messages via Slack.
One worker claimed that the company never officially announced or explained the new rule. It’s also unclear what the employer’s motivation is behind the move, the worker said.
"It's all just so not transparent, it's maddening," this person wrote in Slack.
Another questioned if badging in to eat lunch for two hours would count as a workday, and some wondered how exactly the hours could be tracked or if it's even legal to do so.
"Remember when we were measured on metrics that actually mattered?" one worker wrote in Slack, according to the report.
Most Canadian workers are OK with heading back to the office – but employers do not seem to be ready to meet their needs, according to a previous report. Another report found that nearly two-thirds (64 per cent) of workers would ask their employer for a raise if they are required to return to the office full time.
