"For the last three years, the corporate world has been locked in a territorial dispute. The "Return to Office" (RTO) wars were defined by geography: the home versus the headquarters. But as 2025 unfolded, the frontline shifted. According to commercial-real-estate giant JLL's Workforce Preference Barometer 2025, the most critical conflict between employers and employees is no longer about location-it is about time."
"Although JLL didn't dive into the phenomenon of "coffee badging," its findings align with the practice of hybrid workers stretching the boundaries of office attendance. The phrase-meaning when a worker badges in just long enough to have the proverbial cup of coffee before commuting somewhere else to keep working remotely-vividly illustrates how the goalposts have shifted from where to when. Gartner reported 60% of employers were tracking employees as of 2022, twice as many as before the pandemic."
The primary workplace conflict has moved from where people work to when they work. Structured hybrid policies are now common, with 66% of global office workers reporting clear expectations on attendance days. Employees have largely accepted location arrangements but increasingly demand autonomy over schedules. Work-life balance has overtaken salary as the leading priority, cited by 65% of respondents, up from 59% in 2022. High salaries remain the top reason people switch jobs, while schedule control is the main reason employees stay. Temporal autonomy and practices like "coffee badging" illustrate shifting worker expectations amid rising employer tracking.
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