How soon will workplaces return to normal? In many cases, will there be a new normal?

Not surprisingly, the answers will vary sector-to-sector and business-to-business.

Cisco Systems CEO Chuck Robbins said the following: “I think you’ll see many employees that will continue to work from home, you’ll have many that will get back to the office and then you’ll have some that’ll do a little bit of both.”

Companies that navigate this successfully will have a huge advantage over companies who don’t adapt, and this can lead to greater productivity and also reduce overhead costs such as expensive office space in the future.

Many have been predicting that we will see changes in work from home policies across many industries as a result of the Coronavirus. But this is still a surprise. By announcing that all employees will have the option of working from home, Twitter is setting the bar for other companies thinking about how to handle this issue.

Of course this raises a host of issues as well. Is it an either/or choice for employees? Or can they select a hybrid approach? Can they primarily work from home but then come in from time to time? Also, how will this affect the future of Twitter’s San Francisco HQ and other offices? Can this be a critical first step in easing the crowding in some of our largest cities?

It will be fascinating to see how this plays out.

With so many people working from home during the Covid-19 crisis, more people are learning about the benefits of working from home:

As most Americans continue to adjust to working from home during quarantine, the number of hours workers save on commuting hassles is being redistributed into their work.

Remote working certainly has some perks during the COVID-19 crisis. Social distancing and shelter-in-place are two of the best ways to help combat the virus since it encourages people to stay indoors and not head over to the office. But the additional free-time that comes with no commutes and standing in traffic for countless hours means US workdays are up by three hours since the rise in the coronavirus outbreak, according to a new analysis.

Of course, other productivity issues can arise with distractions at home, particularly if you have kids at home.

But the advantages of eliminating commuting time is real. This gives workers so much more time to work with during the day, and an 11-hour day feels like a normal 8-hour day.

It will be interesting to see how employers use this information. Having worked from home for years, this isn’t a surprise.

With the Covid-19 crisis, everyone is being forced to re-imagine work. Companies that resisted flexible work arrangements are now doing everything they can to get things done with most of their team stuck at home.

Naturally, this is spilling into the job market as well. LinkedIn reported that remote work’s share of job listings increased 28% in March.

The question will be how much of this persists once we start to return to normal. Companies have been exposed to how much can be done with workers at home, so why devote so many resources to large, corporate offices? What are the long-term implications for commercial real estate? Which industries will see real transformation, and which will mostly go back to normal?