Every morning, Mr. A strolls into the office at 9 a.m., swiping his badge with perfect enthusiasm.

每天早上 9 點，A 先生都會興致勃勃地刷卡走進辦公室。

He hits a few meetings, grabs coffee with colleagues, and keeps the daily buzz going.

他參加一些會議，與同事們一起喝咖啡，讓每天的工作都充滿活力。

But here's the twist.

但這裡有一個轉折。

Come noon, he sneaks out, heading home to wrap up his work in comfort.

中午時分，他偷偷溜出去，回家舒舒服服地結束工作。

By around 5, he's clocked out.

到 5 點左右，他就打卡下班了。

Mission accomplished.

任務完成。

Mr. A has redefined the 9-to-5 in his own terms, and interestingly, this trend also has a name.

A 先生用自己的方式重新定義了 "朝九晚五"，有趣的是，這股潮流還有一個名字。

A new trend emerging in the back-to-office push, and that is coffee badging.

在 "回到辦公室 "的推動下，出現了一種新趨勢，那就是咖啡徽章。

Coffee badging is two worlds colliding.

咖啡徽章是兩個世界的碰撞。

It's employers wanting to get their workers back into the office, and employees desire to really have more flexibility on the job.

僱主希望讓員工重返辦公室，而員工則希望在工作中真正擁有更大的靈活性。

And so that's coming together in this trend of coffee badging.

是以，咖啡徽章的趨勢正在形成。

Coffee badging is happening because workers are using this as a soft revolt against their return-to-office mandates that companies have put out.

咖啡徽章之所以會出現，是因為工人們將此作為一種軟性反抗，來對抗公司規定的重返辦公室要求。

And they just, like, badge in, have a coffee, check in with their colleagues, do some work, and then leave their office early.

他們就像這樣，進門，喝杯咖啡，跟同事打聲招呼，做一些工作，然後早早離開辦公室。

It is a silent protest of saying, I just want to be home.

這是一種無聲的抗議：我只想回家。

Coffee badging was a term that Owl Labs coined as part of its 2023 State of Hybrid Work Report.

咖啡徽章是貓頭鷹實驗室（Owl Labs）在其《2023 年混合工作狀態報告》中創造的一個術語。

And what we found was, is that employees weren't necessarily returning to the office in a traditional eight-to-five manner, five days a week, but they were coffee badging.

我們發現，員工並不一定以傳統的每週五天、從早到晚的方式回到辦公室，而是在喝咖啡。

Some were going in just to show face, grab a cup of coffee, say hi to some of their colleagues, maybe their boss, so that they could check the box for their company's return-to-office mandate.

有些人進去只是為了露個臉，喝杯咖啡，跟同事打聲招呼，也許是跟老闆打聲招呼，這樣他們就可以在公司的重返辦公室任務中打勾了。

Whereas others were going into the office for different periods of time, maybe for reasons that the office offered them luxuries that the home environment didn't, which is access to technology, which was meeting with colleagues, or being in in-person meetings.

而其他人則會在不同的時間段去辦公室，也許是因為辦公室為他們提供了家庭環境所沒有的奢侈品，那就是使用技術、與同事會面或親自參加會議。

A lot of the workplace trends that we're seeing right now are very much reflective of what's happening in the overall job market.

我們現在看到的很多職場趨勢在很大程度上反映了整個就業市場的情況。

The overall U.S. economy is performing well, but the job market is cooling.

美國整體經濟表現良好，但就業市場正在降溫。

A closer look at the monthly job creation over the past two years reveals the broader trend, with the labor market adding just 227,000 jobs in November.

仔細觀察過去兩年的月度新增就業人數，就會發現更廣泛的趨勢，11 月份勞動力市場僅增加了 22.7 萬個就業崗位。

Some experts note that workplace trends often mirror the job market.

一些專家指出，職場趨勢往往反映了就業市場。

During the pandemic, when workers' demand was high, quiet quitting became the dominant workplace theme.

在大流行病期間，工人的需求很高，安靜地辭職成為工作場所的主旋律。

But now, as the job market is tighter, particularly for white-collar jobs, coffee badging is trending.

但現在，隨著就業市場的緊縮，尤其是白領工作的緊縮，咖啡徽章已成為一種趨勢。

Workplace trends reflect what's happening in the job market largely because you can tell who has the power.

職場趨勢之所以能反映就業市場的變化，很大程度上是因為你能分辨出誰在掌權。

During COVID, the employees had the power.

在 COVID 期間，員工擁有權力。

Employers were scared to death of losing employees, and it was a tight job market, and it was very difficult to get qualified employees in the door.

僱主們害怕失去員工，而當時的就業市場又很緊張，很難招到合格的員工。

These days, the employer has the power because even though the job market fundamentally is still good, it's not nearly as strong as it used to be.

如今，僱主掌握著主動權，因為儘管就業市場的基本面依然良好，但已遠不如以前那麼強勁。

So employees can't job hop the way that they did two or three years ago.

是以，員工不能再像兩三年前那樣跳槽了。

Now, from the perspective of the employer, it's, look, we gave you your time.

現在，從僱主的角度來看，我們給了你時間。

Now it's our time.

現在是我們的時代了。

You're going to come back to the office, and if you don't like it, you can go elsewhere.

你會回到辦公室，如果你不喜歡，你可以去別的地方。

Dynamics that we saw in the labor force a couple of years ago were very unusual.

幾年前，我們看到的勞動力動態是非常不尋常的。

The issue is that we had much fewer workers, and a lot of power had really shifted towards employees and away from employers in the workforce relationship.

問題是，我們的工人數量少了很多，在勞動力關係中，很多權力確實轉向了僱員，而不是僱主。

That's one of the reasons we saw quiet quitting, because there was just a lot of demand for workers and people weren't that worried about losing their jobs in that kind of an environment, whereas now we have an environment that's much more balanced.

這也是我們看到有人悄悄辭職的原因之一，因為當時對工人的需求很大，人們並不擔心在那種環境下丟掉工作，而現在我們的環境要平衡得多。

Productivity has long been a contentious issue for supporters and critics of remote work, with mixed results and studies measuring its impact.

長期以來，對於遠程工作的支持者和批評者來說，生產力一直是一個有爭議的問題，衡量其影響的結果和研究參差不齊。

For instance, October 2024 research from the Bureau of Labor Statistics found that productivity increased with the rise of remote work across 61 private sector industries from 2019 to 2021.

例如，美國勞工統計局 2024 年 10 月的研究發現，從 2019 年到 2021 年，61 個私營部門行業的生產率隨著遠程工作的興起而提高。

However, a major July 2023 study by Stanford's Institute for Economic Policy Research reported that fully remote work is linked to about 10% lower productivity than fully in-person work.

然而，斯坦福大學經濟政策研究所 2023 年 7 月的一項重要研究報告指出，完全遠程工作的生產率要比完全面對面工作的生產率低 10%左右。

So studies are not clear on whether remote work makes you more or less productive.

是以，關於遠程工作會提高還是降低工作效率的研究並不明確。

There's mixed evidence there.

證據不一。

But there are perceptions that coming together can increase productivity.

但也有人認為，團結一致可以提高生產率。

The reason there's no clear answer on this one is because it's incredibly hard to measure how remote work is impacting productivity.

之所以沒有明確的答案，是因為要衡量遠程工作對工作效率的影響非常困難。

So it really depends on the job, it depends on the skill and the task that you're trying to complete, what industry you're in, what kind of worker you are.

是以，這確實取決於工作，取決於你要完成的技能和任務，取決於你所從事的行業，取決於你是什麼樣的工人。

That makes it incredibly hard to get an exact answer to is remote work good or bad for productivity.

是以，要準確回答遠程工作對工作效率的影響是好是壞，是非常困難的。

When I look at the relationship between at homework versus in the office work as it relates to productivity, I have a different perspective than a lot of people because I'm not going to debate the empirical numbers.

當我研究家庭作業與辦公室工作對生產率的關係時，我的觀點與很多人不同，因為我不會去爭論經驗數字。

I'm going to simply say one thing.

我只想說一件事。

Productivity is ultimately in the eyes of the beholder.

生產力終究是看人的。

Who has the power?

誰有權力？

In the case of the company, if the company is paying your salary, the company is giving you a paycheck, and the company says in order to justify your productivity, you need to be in the office, you have to be in the office.

就公司而言，如果公司付你工資，公司給你薪水，公司說為了證明你的工作效率，你必須在辦公室，你必須在辦公室。

The fact is that bosses like to have people on the premises.

事實上，老闆們都喜歡有人在這裡工作。

I've spent most of my career as an editor, an editor-in-chief, and I like to have people in the office.

我職業生涯的大部分時間都在做編輯、主編，我喜歡辦公室裡有人。

And there's something to be said.

這也是有道理的。

I totally am very empathetic to the idea of culture and mentorship and creativity and all of those things.

我對文化、師徒關係、創造力和所有這些東西的理念完全感同身受。

But that said, there is a reason why hybrid remote work remains so prevalent.

但話雖如此，混合遠程工作之所以如此盛行也是有原因的。

And the reason is that it works.

原因就在於它很有效。

News reports of companies mandating in-person work have been dominating headlines recently, with studies also highlighting crackdowns on the coffee badging trend.

最近，有關公司強制要求員工親自上班的新聞報道佔據了各大媒體的頭條，還有研究強調了對咖啡徽章趨勢的打擊。

Owl Labs data shows 44 percent of hybrid employees still coffee badge.

Owl Labs 的數據顯示，44% 的混合型員工仍在使用咖啡徽章。

That's down 24 percent from 2023.

這比 2023 年下降了 24%。

Meanwhile, 70 percent of coffee badgers have been caught, with 16 percent now forced to be in office for the full day.

與此同時，70% 的咖啡獾已被抓獲，16% 的咖啡獾現在被迫全天上班。

Interestingly, some companies are also using badge data or swipe data as a tool to promote, demote or even lay off employees.

有趣的是，一些公司還利用徽章數據或刷卡數據作為晉升、降級甚至裁員的工具。

So I wrote a book called The Algorithm about how AI is used in the workforce, you know, to hire people, but also to monitor employees.

是以，我寫了一本名為《算法》的書，講述了人工智能在勞動力中的應用，你知道，它不僅用於招聘，也用於監控員工。

And one of the folks that I talked to was an analyst at Gartner.

與我交談的人中有一位是 Gartner 的分析師。

One of the companies he was working with, what they did is they looked at like, you know, we want to find the people that we haven't really promoted before.

與他合作的一家公司，他們所做的事情就是，你知道，我們想找到那些我們以前沒有真正提拔過的人。

How can we do this?

我們怎樣才能做到這一點？

So this company came up with this idea to look at batch data.

於是，這家公司想到了研究批量數據。

So the people who batched in early and batched out late, who had like very long hours at the desk, were supposed to be more promotable than others.

是以，那些早出晚歸、在辦公桌前工作時間很長的人，應該比其他人更容易晉升。

And the fortunate thing about that company was also when the pandemic hit and they started to have to do layoffs, they wanted to look at this kind of badging in, badging out data to understand who are the people that leave early, that have the fewest hours in the seats, and they were going to look at those to lay off.

這家公司的幸運之處在於，當大流行病襲來時，他們開始不得不進行裁員，他們希望通過這種 "記入 "和 "記出 "數據來了解哪些人早退，哪些人在座位上的時間最短，然後他們將對這些人進行裁員。

The push by some companies against flexible work is apparent in job postings with fewer remote roles.

一些公司反對靈活工作，這一點在遠程職位減少的招聘啟事中顯而易見。

LinkedIn data shows flexible work stabilizing at one in five listings since November 2023, down from a peak of over one in four between October 2022 and March of 2023.

LinkedIn 的數據顯示，自 2023 年 11 月以來，靈活工作的比例穩定在五分之一，低於 2022 年 10 月至 2023 年 3 月期間超過四分之一的峰值。

Indeed's chart also shows a decline in remote and hybrid job listings since their 2022 peak.

Indeed 的圖表還顯示，自 2022 年達到峰值以來，遠程和混合型職位列表有所減少。

As the world reopened post-pandemic, corporate America shifted its stance on remote work.

隨著大流行病後世界的重新開放，美國公司轉變了對遠程工作的立場。

Companies like Amazon now mandate employees to return to the office five days a week or risk losing their jobs.

亞馬遜等公司現在規定員工每週必須有五天返回辦公室，否則就有可能丟掉工作。

Companies Cloud chief Matt Garman saying during an all hands meeting that staffers who don't agree with the policy, well, they can leave.

公司雲主管馬特-加曼（Matt Garman）在一次全體員工會議上說，不同意這項政策的員工可以離開。

According to the transcript that was viewed by CNBC, he said the following in quotes, if there are people who just don't work well in that environment and don't want to, that is OK.

根據 CNBC 查看的文字記錄，他用引號說："如果有人在這種環境下工作不好，也不想這樣做，那也沒關係。

There are other companies around.

周圍還有其他公司。

You know, there are a lot of employers, I'm saying small to midsize employers who are waiting on a juggernaut like Amazon to officially go ahead and push forward with a five day work policy because their bank account is basically the size of a small country's account.

你知道，有很多僱主，我說的是中小型僱主，他們在等待像亞馬遜這樣的巨頭正式推進五天工作制，因為他們的銀行賬戶基本上只有一個小國家的賬戶那麼大。

And this is just an Amazon attitude is if you don't like it, go someplace else.

這只是亞馬遜的態度，如果你不喜歡，就去別的地方。

Other employers, and I'm hearing this behind closed doors, employers are really happy that Amazon is pushing this because if Amazon's doing it now, we can follow suit.

其他僱主，我聽到的是閉門造車，僱主們非常高興亞馬遜正在推動這項工作，因為如果亞馬遜現在這樣做了，我們也可以效仿。

I don't think that the five day work week is something that you're going to see generally.

我不認為每週工作五天會成為普遍現象。

It's the fact that Amazon has opted to go that direction doesn't necessarily mean that everybody is going to move in lockstep with what they did.

亞馬遜選擇了這個方向，但這並不意味著每個人都會與他們的做法保持一致。

One of the reasons employers can get more workers back into the office, because there just isn't as much mobility as there was a few years ago.

僱主能讓更多工人重返辦公室的原因之一，就是因為流動性沒有幾年前那麼大了。

You don't see as many workers moving.

你不會看到那麼多工人搬家。

And in fact, two in five workers tell us that they feel stuck in their job.

事實上，每五名員工中就有兩名告訴我們，他們覺得自己被工作困住了。

Amazon, who's now mandating all of their employees come back five days a week and employees have been up in arms about that.

亞馬遜現在規定所有員工每週回來工作五天，員工們對此意見很大。

They don't want that.

他們不希望這樣。

They want to keep their flexibility.

他們希望保持靈活性。

It remains to be seen if this is going to have a huge ripple effect, if other employers are going to mandate the same thing.

這是否會產生巨大的連鎖反應，其他僱主是否也會強制執行同樣的規定，我們拭目以待。

CNBC reached out to Amazon regarding its five day office work policy.

CNBC 就亞馬遜的五天辦公政策聯繫了亞馬遜。

The company stated that the policy was needed to ensure that its team stays connected to invent, collaborate and deliver the best results for its customers and business.

該公司表示，有必要制定該政策，以確保其團隊保持聯繫，為客戶和業務進行發明、協作和提供最佳成果。

The push against remote work isn't limited to companies.

反對遠程工作的不僅是公司。

Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, the co-leaders of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, are proposing a five day in office work week for federal employees, raising doubts about the future of flexible work and the coffee badging trend.

埃隆-馬斯克（Elon Musk）和維維克-拉馬斯瓦米（Vivek Ramaswamy）是所謂的 "政府效率部"（Department of Government Efficiency）的共同領導人，他們提議聯邦僱員每週在辦公室工作五天，這讓人們對靈活工作的未來和咖啡徽章的趨勢產生了懷疑。

Yeah, when I look at the future of flexible work, here's what I see.

是的，當我展望靈活工作的未來時，我看到的是這樣的景象。

Depending on the industry, flexible work might be the thing to be.

根據行業的不同，靈活的工作方式可能是最合適的。

You know, if you happen to work in a technological industry, you can work remotely.

要知道，如果你碰巧從事的是技術行業，你就可以遠程工作。

It doesn't necessarily require that you to come in the office versus if you're in a human resources function, if you're a warehouse function.

與人力資源部門和倉庫部門相比，它並不一定要求你到辦公室來。

If you're in something, director of operations, that's going to force you to continue to come into work because you need to be hands on.

如果你是營運總監，這將迫使你繼續上班，因為你需要親力親為。

So what we're essentially going to see in the future, the future is going to look a lot like the past.

是以，我們在未來基本上會看到的是，未來將與過去非常相似。

It's very clear when you look at the data on LinkedIn that employees prefer flexible work.

從 LinkedIn 上的數據可以清楚地看出，員工更喜歡靈活的工作方式。

So they're going to be looking for those hybrid options, those remote options wherever they can get them.

是以，他們會尋找那些混合選項，那些遠程選項，只要他們能找到。

And they're going to be looking to make work work for them, as they did during the pandemic.

他們會像在大流行病期間那樣，希望讓工作為他們服務。

I think the coffee badging phenomenon is indicative of the type of adjustments that we're going to see going forward as we see a normalization of the relationship between employees and employers and expectations about whether people will be working at home or whether they'll be working in the office.

我認為，咖啡徽章現象表明，隨著僱員與僱主之間關係的正常化，以及人們對在家工作還是在辦公室工作的期望的提高，我們將會看到未來的調整類型。

So I think that it's perhaps a symptom of that, those types of adjustments as workers kind of seek out what are the appropriate norms with their employers and as employees kind of seek out just how much engagement they need with their employees to have them be productive and well connected to their enterprise.

是以，我認為這也許是一種徵兆，因為工人們在尋求與僱主之間的適當規範，而僱員們也在尋求他們需要與僱員有多大程度的接觸，才能讓他們提高工作效率，並與企業保持良好的聯繫。

Coffee badging exists and will continue to exist because employees are looking for that level of flexibility to be able to choose the environment that allows them to be most productive and it gives them the best flexibility.

咖啡徽章之所以存在，並將繼續存在下去，是因為員工們都在尋求這種靈活性，以便能夠選擇最能提高他們工作效率的環境，而且這種環境能給他們帶來最大的靈活性。

But it is also a way for them to be able to meet the return to office mandate that they're company has.

但這也是他們能夠完成公司規定的重返辦公室任務的一種方式。