“Coffee badging,” defined by the Urban Dictionary as "going into the office building for the morning coffee, 'badging in' for the day, and then going home to work for the remainder of the day," has emerged as a trend recently. While the concept may be controversial, it is one of three practices that contribute to employee success, according to Frank Weishaupt, CEO of video conferencing equipment maker Owl Labs, CNBC Make It reported.

Rather than “a way to hack the [return to office] system,” as The Wall Street Journal called it, coffee badging is something to be encouraged, Weishapt told CNBC—although it should be noted that in the coffee-badging scenario that CNBC presented, employees would stay in the office until around 3 p.m., rather than leave after their morning coffee.

“I don’t hire people to watch them work. I do love the in-office participation when we get it, but I want it to be organic,” Weishaupt told CNBC. “The office has a role, but mandating that you must come into the office on this day, at this time, and leave no earlier than this time, that is a dead concept.”

Fifty-eight percent of hybrid workers said they coffee badge, Owl Labs’ 2023 State of Hybrid Work report found. A 2023 Future Forum Pulse survey reported that employees with flexible schedules are more productive than those without.

That perspective is not universally accepted, however.

“It’s highly likely that you’re headed for a mediocre career” by coffee badging, said Keith Styrcula, founder and CEO of  Glasstower Digital, a financial technology firm, in an interview with the Journal. “Face time and playing the political games are sometimes as important as merit. That’s just the way American corporate culture works.”

The second practice that Weishaupt encourages to boost employee success is embracing artificial intelligence (AI). He does not stop his employees from exploring ways to use AI for productivity and organization. “I look at [AI as] more of an opportunity to enhance jobs, enhance the performance of the employee and also give them better tools to be able to execute [their roles],” he said. 

Mark Cuban agrees, CNBC reported. “There’s two types of companies: those who are great at AI and everybody else,” he said on a podcast in May 2022. “And you don’t necessarily have to be great at AI to start a company, but at some point, you’re going to have to understand it.”

The third practice that Weishaupt said contributes to employee success is providing employees with money-saving perquisites.

On average, workers spend $51 per day when they go to the office, according to Owl Labs’ report. That includes paying for items such as parking, commuting, breakfast and lunch.

“For us, we have a home office stipend that helps offset some of the costs of working from home. We have done commuter benefits in the past [and] we pay for lunches several days a week,” Weishaupt said. “So we’ve looked for that perfect combination of things that can satisfy a lot of different employees.”

Business leaders must find strategies and solutions that not only work for them, but “works for [employees] as well,” said Weishaupt. "It’s a big [deal].”