Step Into a Meeting with Skype

As a remote employee you lose the ability to “pop” your head into a meeting to ask a quick question or bring some immediate issue to the table. This week during a regularly scheduled meeting one of the remote employees called in looking for two people who were attending.

We called him on Skype, from our conference room, and he was able to ask his question, and our meeting was able to proceed as soon as he was done. This was convenient, as it allowed the remote employee to get his question answered without having to have people step out of the meeting. Everyone started to joke how the Skype call was like a news broadcast interruption, so as soon as the call ended it was “back to our regularly scheduled program.”

The more we use Skype in our everyday work practices the more we uncover the small ways it is useful. The little ways we are able to make communication with remote employees more closely resemble face-to-face communication the better. Have you found a similar use for Skype? What are some of more subtle ways you can replicate face-to-face communication with Skype?