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- Bevi, a Boston startup, makes high-tech water coolers that collect usage data.
- Some investors and hedge funds are using this data to track America's return to office trends, Bloomberg reported.
- The tracking places Bevi in the middle of a debate between remote workers and their employers.
As companies adjust to a world of remote and hybrid work schedules, an unusual tool is emerging to help businesses keep track of their workers — the water cooler.
Bevi, a Boston-based startup that sells high-tech water coolers, collects data about how much water its machines dispense over time. According to Bloomberg, the data closely mirrors shifts in office occupancy over the last three years.
"The amount of water people drink turns out to be a good indicator of how much time they're spending in the office," Bevi co-founder and CEO Sean Grundy told Bloomberg in an interview. "For us, it's positive that it's been trending up."
When Bevi's usage data rose from 28% to 44% between January 2021 and 2022, office occupancy data collected by securities firm Kastle Systems rose in tandem. When Bevi usage saw another hike between January 2022 and this year, it was again mirrored by findings from Kastle, Bloomberg reported.
According to Bloomberg, Grundy and his company have begun to receive requests from investors and hedge funds to examine Bevi's data. The companies hope to gain insight into office trends, as remote work continues to solidify itself as a standard.
While changes in water cooler usage may help companies better understand the tendencies of America's workforce, the data place Bevi in the middle of an ongoing debate between remote workers and their employers.
The state of remote and hybrid work in America has made consistent headlines in the past few months, as companies like Disney and Amazon push for their workers to return to the office, prompting employees to fight back.
But workers who want to stay remote argue that the ability for companies to provide flexibility to the workforce is important — and some have even settled down in places far away from their company's headquarters.
"It's a paradox," Tsedal Neeley, a professor of organizational behavior at Harvard Business School and author of a book on remote work, told Bloomberg. "People value the autonomy and flexibility in their schedule, but they also want serendipitous connections. They say, 'I want to work from home, but I also want to run into you!'"