Purpose The unimagined workplace disturbance caused by the Coronavirus, also known as COVID-19, has made many organizations virtual or telework driven workplaces, often without the infrastructure and systems in place to support employees facing these sudden workplace changes (Burrell, 2020). Many stressors accompanied this transition, to include lack of childcare, home-school responsibilities and layoffs and business closings. These stressors have perpetuated concerns for the job and financial security for all workers (Fox, 2020), leading some employees to struggle with the work-life balance out of concern for being laid off due to perceived low productivity (Fox, 2020). This study aims to explore those manifestations. Design/methodology/approach This qualitative research case study explores the impact COVID-19 induced telework has on their job satisfaction, mental well-being and aspects of organizational commitment to fill a gap in the literature concerning emerging workplace dynamics due to COVID-19 for small real estate businesses in the USA. Findings The results of this qualitative research case study provide knowledge and information about the need for small businesses to be resourceful and resilient in the way that they support and engage remote workers. This qualitative research case study explores the impact COVID-19-induced telework has on their job satisfaction, mental well-being and aspects of organizational commitment for small real estate businesses. The analysis of current work-life structures through a qualitative lens provides trends among workers to gain a greater perspective of the current accelerators and barriers to worker success in a COVID-19 teleworking environment. Originality/value This qualitative research case study explores the impact COVID-19 induced telework has on their job satisfaction, mental well-being and aspects of organizational commitment to fill a gap in the literature concerning emerging workplace dynamics due to COVID-19 for small real estate businesses. The value of this research is that majority of the participants were African-Americans, which represents a participant group that is highly under researched.