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The talk of Wuhan already seems a lifetime ago. A city with a larger population than London that many, including me as a geography graduate, had never heard of. Since then, new words and phrases have come into our day-to-day lives, some of which I hope may be temporary, some of which are likely to become the norm.

Furloughing, Zoom, Teams, social distancing and self-isolation. I read with interest that the Oxford Dictionary has made an extraordinary update to include Covid-19 and words related to the pandemic in its definitive record of the English language. One of these is the abbreviation “WFH”, which will be one that is undoubtedly here to stay. I have never been one for corporate lingo but you don’t have to think too far outside of the box to see where we are heading.

Covid-19 has forced us to live, work, shop and play to a different rule book. People who previously didn’t trust Amazon and online grocery shopping and banking now have fingerprint enabled logins to access accounts and enable one click delivery and transactions. My father, who was always sceptical of purchasing from eBay, is now an active eBayer, bulk-buying aniseed balls at a discount with the temporary closure of his local confectionary store.

Some employers, who previously didn’t trust employees to work from home, are now realising the productivity benefits of doing so. At the same time, employees who may have had their frequent requests to WFH turned down are complaining about having to stare at the same white-washed bedroom wall everyday with virtual communication being the only option. We are all suddenly conscious of what is behind us as the laptop video camera lens spans beyond our heads and shoulders, and are continually forgetting to switch the microphone mute button off whilst delivering key messages to clients and colleagues.

Innovation is at its best. Restaurants becoming takeaway outlets overnight, retailers offering delivery and click-and-collect services that never previously did this. I have always wondered why Aldi has never entered the online delivery market and yet its new delivery boxes launched last week sold out in minutes. Bedrooms have become offices, lounges have become schools, kitchens have become bakeries and the outside is the new gym.

Critically, exhibitions halls and conference centres have become hospitals, ordinary people have become NHS volunteers and people are saying ‘hello’ to one another on pavements and across roads (respecting the two-metre rule, of course), an activity normally confined to public footpaths only when wearing suitable hiking attire.

Businesses are having to respond accordingly and manage remote working with employees and clients, managing the wellbeing of staff and their families as a key priority whilst also seeking to maintain business continuity as far as possible.

I wanted to share some of the things we are doing at Cushman & Wakefield in response to Covid-19. I am sure many others are doing similar or maybe better, but at a time like this it is important to share ideas, thoughts and practices as ultimately we are all in this together.