Home Working Prompts UK ISP TalkTalk to Rethink Offices

The boss of budget broadband ISP TalkTalk, Tristia Harrison, has said that the idea of traditional office working is “over” and “no one believes we’ll return to 100% occupancy, five days a week, nine to five.” Instead the internet provider envisages more home working and, she adds, “all” the other bosses agree.

One of the big changes to come out of the COVID-19 pandemic has been the mass national adoption of home working, which enabled many office workers to continue working even while their usual place of business had to be closed. The move helped to show a lot of businesses just what might be possible, while at the same time also helping to highlight some well-known weak points of existing broadband connectivity.

Admittedly we’re still a long way from returning to whatever will now pass for normal, but in the meantime, companies have taken this learning experience and are now planning for a different future, with a wider adoption of flexible working. TalkTalk is no exception to this. Tristia said there are no plans to move to a fully remote operation and insisted that offices are still vital, but their role will diminish.

Obviously, where this works, it could also present another cost saving opportunity (i.e. smaller offices) for companies and that too is likely to be an attractive consideration.

Tristia Harrison, CEO of TalkTalk, said (PA news agency):

“You can’t imagine anybody returning to that kind of rhythm and I think what we’re also finding is that people are just much more productive. If they can be trusted to be at home, they can be super flexible … As long as the output and efficiency is there and the business is operating well, we won’t change it.

I think telling people they must return is short term. I understand it’s because of the short-term impact on economies and sectors that thrive on office workers. And so, if you’re in hospitality in those areas, it’s tough. That said, you can see retail and hospitality in, you know, more suburban areas thriving.”

So far, we’ve seen a lot of research from the business side of the fence that supports all of this, but what we haven’t yet been able to independently gauge is how all of this impact’s consumers. In an ideal world consumers wouldn’t notice any negative impact, but as companies are still adapting to the pandemic then it’s a little difficult to know.

For example, when recently needing to contact our home insurance company about a policy query my wife found that they were impossible to reach via the phone, did not respond to email and their live chat system was either unavailable or seemingly didn’t function correctly (in an emergency that would have been a big problem). We’ve seen similar gripes about some ISPs, which suggests that some operators still haven’t fully adapted.

One other issue is that of data security because, no matter how you approach it, passing sensitive customer details back and forth to computers in a home environment is always going to be more exposed to abuse than if they were inside an office environment. Not that the latter is perfect either, but it’s still a consideration.