Hybrid Workers Are 'Calendar Stalking' Their Bosses

Nearly half of U.S. workers—48%—say they have gone into the office specifically to be seen by leaders or clients, or plan to do so, according to Owl Labs' 2026 State of Hybrid Work survey. The newest tactic has a name: "calendar stalking."

The practice involves hybrid employees obsessively tracking their bosses' Outlook schedules to maximize face time, coordinating their own office days to match so they can perform strategic walk-bys, as USA Today reported. It is the latest entry in a growing lexicon of workplace presence management, and it signals that the battle over return-to-office mandates has shifted from policy documents to individual calendars.

The escalation has been incremental. First came "coffee badging"—a hybrid or remote employee goes to the office just long enough to swipe an ID badge and grab a cup of coffee. Some companies responded by tracking how long workers actually stayed in the office, The Wall Street Journal reported. Workers then adapted again. "Calendar stalking" now sits alongside "billboarding," the practice of commuting to the office simply to show face, which has grown in popularity as return-to-office mandates have spread.

The Owl Labs data reveals a sharp divide in who plays the visibility game. The practice is far more common among managers, 83% of whom admitted taking part, than among individual contributors—just 17% of whom have participated. In other words, the people most likely to be watched are also the least likely to be performing visibility for their own bosses.

The numbers help explain why. Commuting costs the average American worker nearly $7,000 per year, a figure that includes both direct expenses and the time burden of getting to and from an office. Against that cost, workers are rationally economizing: if the office visit exists to be seen, then being seen efficiently—on the right day, at the right hour, when the right executive is at their desk—becomes the objective.

Employers, for their part, keep tightening the screws. According to CBRE, the percentage of U.S. companies that expect workers to come in at least three days a week rose to 89% this year, up from 78% in 2025. That is an eleven-point jump in a single year, and it came faster than companies' investment in upgrading workplaces to make the trip worthwhile, CBRE found.

The result is a widening gap between mandate and motivation. Many executives believe requiring workers to be physically present increases productivity and innovation. Workers, faced with a costly commute and offices that may not have kept pace with their needs, have developed a parallel system of compliance theater: badge swipes timed to the minute, office days synced to executive schedules, walk-bys choreographed for maximum exposure.

The pattern also underscores what workplace researchers have long called presenteeism—being there without fully being there. Coffee badging, billboarding, and calendar stalking are all variations on the same theme: satisfying the appearance of attendance while minimizing its substance.

For managers, the Owl Labs survey carries an uncomfortable implication. If 83% of managers admit to showing up just to be seen, then the executives measuring attendance as a proxy for productivity are themselves gaming the metric. The measure is corrupted at both ends of the hierarchy.

The data suggests the office attendance war will not be settled by badge data alone. As long as a three-day mandate carries a $7,000 annual price tag for employees and companies keep raising expectations faster than they improve the workplace itself, workers will keep optimizing for visibility rather than presence. The question CBRE's numbers raise—and one more employers will have to answer—is whether 89% of companies can make the office worth the trip before workers perfect the art of never truly being there.