The Empty Desk Problem: A Telecoms Audit for Hybrid UK Teams

Walk into many UK offices on a Friday in 2026 and you will see a familiar sight: rows of desks, a few people on video calls, and a lot of desk phones that have not been lifted since Tuesday. Hybrid working has changed where people work, but many phone bills still assume everyone is at a desk from nine to five. The result is a telecoms setup that is over-provisioned in some places and awkward in others.

Right-sizing is not about cutting the phone bill to zero. It is about paying for the seats, numbers and hardware that match how your team actually works. Here is a practical way to audit what you have and decide what to keep.

Start with how people really work

Do not start with the invoice. Start with a week in the life of your team. Most SMEs have three rough groups: people who are in the office most days, hybrid workers who split their time, and field or mobile staff who rarely sit at a desk. Each group needs something different.

Ask a simple question for each person: do they need a physical handset, a softphone on their laptop or mobile, or both? Do they need their own direct dial number, or can they work from a shared team number? Do they make outbound calls to clients, or mostly receive calls through reception? The answers will be messier than the org chart, which is fine. The point is to stop buying one standard package for everyone.

Find the idle seats

Pull a call report for the last 60 or 90 days. You are looking for extensions with no outbound calls, no voicemail retrievals and no answered calls. Walk the office and check which handsets are plugged in. Compare the provider invoice to your active user list. It is common to find licences still assigned to leavers, shared handsets that nobody uses, and add-ons that were useful in a previous office setup.

Ask your provider for a licence reconciliation. If they cannot produce one, that is a warning sign. Check the contract for minimum seat commitments and notice periods. Most providers will let you reduce seats at renewal rather than mid-term, so put the date in the diary.

Desk phones versus softphones

A desk phone still makes sense in some places: reception, a shared meeting room, a warehouse desk, or anywhere mobile signal is patchy. A softphone is better for people who move between home and office, because their extension follows them on a laptop or mobile. Headsets matter too. A cheap headset can make a softphone feel worse than a desk phone, which is how good tools get abandoned.

Do not force everyone onto one model. A hybrid team might have a handful of desk phones for shared spaces and softphones for everyone else. If you use hot-desking, check whether the phone system supports shared handsets with login or extension assignment. Otherwise people will avoid the phones and use their mobiles, which creates a different bill and a different problem.

Shared numbers versus personal DIDs

A direct dial number, or DID, is useful for anyone who publishes a number: sales, support, account management, anyone whose clients expect to reach them directly. It is less useful for people who mostly work internally or who answer calls through a team queue. Paying for a personal number that only receives spam is a quiet waste.

Use the main company number for general enquiries. Use department or team numbers where calls are answered by a group. Use personal DIDs for client-facing roles. If someone works mostly from a mobile, a softphone with company caller ID may be better than reimbursing their personal mobile bill. The right answer depends on who calls them and what they need to show when they answer.

Rethink routing on empty days

Hybrid working breaks old call routing assumptions. If calls ring a desk phone that nobody answers on a Friday, the caller hangs up and tries someone else. Use time-of-day routing, ring groups and mobile twinning so calls follow the person, not the desk. Test it on a day when the office is half empty, not on a quiet Tuesday when everyone happens to be in.

Voicemail-to-email and call queues can also reduce the need for a receptionist to be chained to a desk. Keep it simple. The goal is for a caller to reach a human who can help, not to show off every feature in the manual.

A one-page audit you can run this week

• Export 90 days of call logs and highlight extensions with zero or near-zero use.
• List every handset, softphone licence, direct dial number and add-on on the invoice.
• Mark each item as active, occasional or unused.
• Ask each team lead who genuinely needs a personal number and who can share.
• Check contract minimums, renewal dates and notice periods.
• Test call routing on a hybrid day with a colleague calling from a mobile.
• Set a review date for six months' time.

What right-sized looks like

Picture a 12-person UK firm: four people in most days, six hybrid, two often on the road. It might keep three desk phones for reception, a meeting room and a shared desk, give softphones to the hybrid team, and use four direct dial numbers for client-facing roles. The main number handles general enquiries with a simple menu and routes to a team queue. That is not a universal blueprint, but it shows the logic: match the tool to the job.

The savings from unused licences can pay for better headsets, a clearer broadband package or a decent coffee machine. The point is not to squeeze every penny. It is to stop paying for hardware and licences that sit idle while your team works somewhere else. In 2026, a lean telecoms setup should follow the people, not the furniture.