Creating Authentic Human Connections Within A Remote Team

I recently read Creating Authentic Human Connections Within A Remote Team posted by Smashing Magazine and I really connected with this article. I have been working as a remote tech writer for three years now and I can say that this experience and what Randy Tolentino wrote is very true. I especially that "Reading emotions across the distance" section was point on. However, I don't agree that using emojis is necessarily a good solution. I think the use of emojis greatly depends on the personality of the person on the other side of the screen. Personally, if I'm having a back and forth with someone on an IM, I just ask if I can video conference with them for 5-10 minutes. That face to face time is much better at connecting to that other person and reinforce that we are humans and not just resources (as Randy mentions in this article).