Working as a remote developer: How we stay connected across continents
A little over 2 years ago, I moved from Argentina to Tel Aviv to find new work opportunities and challenges. I started working at Wibbitz as an intern, and a few months later, was hired as a full-time software developer. I really enjoyed living and working in such an amazing place — it’s not called the startup city for no reason!
However, after a bit more than a year of being so far away from my roots, I decided it was time to go back… but I really didn’t want to leave my Wibbitz family. I discussed with my team leader about the possibility of remote work, and we decided we would try it out.
Moving back & facing new challenges
Wibbitz currently holds offices in 4 countries around the world (5, counting me!) so we are used to communicating through different time zones, languages, and even different working days, since in Israel the weekend is on Friday and Saturday. But I realized when I moved back to Argentina that this would be different — because I was not moving into a new office, but on my own as a full-time freelance developer. All my life I’ve worked in an office, so this was a big change for me.
At Wibbitz we believe that constant communication is of the utmost importance and this is reflected in every level, from our daily chats and stand up meetings with the team, to weekly meetings with management, to quarterly meetings with all the offices to discuss the present and future of the company. So staying in touch would be a top priority.
Since I was the first (and still only) freelance developer of the company, there were a lot of challenges, to name a few:
- 6 hour time difference
- 13.000 km
- We speak different native languages
But in my opinion, the most important challenge to overcome was keeping the friendships that I had made at work fun and interesting. I feared becoming isolated and just answering emails and pushing code every day.
When working remotely in general, the biggest issue is the lack of community, the loneliness associated with working away from others. So we took this seriously and worked on a way to remain just as close.
How we made it work
When I was still in Israel, Slack and email were the most common methods of communication. But once I got to Argentina, these tools seemed insufficient — you never see people’s faces! Since I’m not a native Hebrew speaker, I didn’t realize how much body language went into communicating with my peers.
So we decided to implement an avatar machine to work around that. Here’s the laptop that is currently sitting in Tel Aviv for one specific purpose: to be my personal avatar.
This computer rests on the wall near my team and it’s turned on all day, allowing direct communication, all the time. Plus, it auto answers — meaning whenever I call it, it immediately connects to the Tel Aviv office.
My daily workflow will start with me calling in (after I have drank my first cup of coffee of course), and greeting everyone in the company. And I mean everyone! People will come near the computer or shout from the distance, it’s as close as it gets to actually being there.
After that I will sync with my team leader and teammates to update each other on the work done the day before, and what we have planned for the rest of the day. A lot of informal communication will then take place throughout the day through this avatar. It’s not only meant to be about work, since we have Slack and emails for that, but for just generic office conversations. And it allows me to still feel part of the company even 13.000 km away!
Having my own avatar also makes meetings easier, since all my coworkers need to do is take my avatar machine with them to the meeting room. And not only work meetings, but also happy hours or specific events I can attend through it.
Since we have a 5/6 hour time difference depending the time of the year, communication also needs to be asynchronous — so instead of emailing everything, we record and save all of our daily meetings. This way, we can avoid interrupting existing processes, since the only action we need to do is press the record button.
Working as part of a whole
This whole experience really changed the way I think about remote work. Communicating this way has allowed for a much deeper connection, avoid miscommunication (transmitting emotion through emojis only gets you so far) and also saves time.
At the end of the day, the difference is made not by the technology, but by the people. Having an amazing group of people willing to go out of their way to make me feel part of a whole makes working remote an amazing experience. I never feel left out, and I’m still able to enjoy doing what I love, no matter where I am.
Looking for a chance to overcome challenges with creative solutions just like this one, with a talented and results-driven team of developers? The Wibbitz Tel Aviv office is hiring both in-house and remote developers! Click here to apply.
