Some Worker is on the phone and it shows.
After years of mostly rising, workplace engagement has plateaued. Today, only a third of full-time and part-time employees are engaged with their jobs and workplaces, while about 50% are disengaged — reflected in the growth of “give up quietly“—and the rest, another 16%, are actively disengaged, according to a 2023 report Gallup Poll was released earlier this year.
Certainly, quiet or drifting resignations have become a hallmark of the post-pandemic era, some experts say, with many employees trying to at least they can get away without attracting the attention of the boss or manager.
The latest example of this separation is the “coffee brand”.
What is a coffee brand?
Coffee branding is an activity of go into the office for a few hours to “show off,” maybe grab coffee with a co-worker or attend a work meeting — but then have to work remotely again.
According to a 2023 survey by Owl Laba company that manufactures video conferencing equipment.
“Employees have gotten used to the flexibility of working from home and only being able to come into the office when absolutely necessary,” said David Satterwhite, CEO of Chronus, a software company focused on improving employee engagement. “It’s hard to put that genie back in the bottle.”
More from Personal Finance:
Why Career Skills Can Make or Break Your Next Interview
Why returning to the office in five days is impossible
Job market remains strong but has become ‘more competitive’
Roger Hall, a business psychologist based in Boise, Idaho, said this latest trend is not surprising, especially considering how much easier it has become to work online and how many employees feel disengaged.
“Whenever there is an easy way to circumvent the law, people will circumvent it,” he said.
Workers are too distracted to work
Partly because fatigue has accelerated since Covid pandemic from being more connected to work, Hall also said. “Every time an email or text comes in, we get a buzzer.”
According to a new study, nearly 50% of workers experience at least one distraction every half hour. learn by Unily, and nearly a third lost focus at least once every 15 minutes.
“With each interruption, it takes about 20 minutes to get back to that level of deep focus,” Hall says. “If you do the math, if they get interrupted every 15 minutes, then never, over the course of a day, [is someone] at a deep level of concentration.”
“At the end of the day, our brains are depleted,” Hall says. As a result, “we’re less productive—it’s taken a toll.”
Gallup found that disengaged or disengaged employees cost the nation an estimated $1.9 trillion in lost productivity.
Workers do not want to spend much time in the office.
“The problem isn’t just with employees using badges; it’s also with this lack of motivation and excitement,” says Satterwhite.
Research shows that employees are more engaged when they have opportunities for growth, learning, mentorship and career guidance, he notes. “Without these, ‘coffee cards’ are just a symptom of a deeper problem.”
While 56% of workers consider themselves ambitious, 47% are not focused on career advancement, according to Randstad’s 2024 report. Working screensurveyed 27,000 workers globally.
The report found that employees are more likely to consider work-life balance, flexible working hours and mental health support to be important today. And fewer want to spend more time in the office than they do now.
“We have seen a strong shift to hybrid working during the pandemic and people are reluctant to give it up,” said Sander van ‘t Noordende, CEO of Randstad. told CNBC.
By then, 37% of workers now said they would consider leaving if their employer asked them to spend more time in the office, and 39% said working from home was non-negotiable, Randstad found.
