We've never met, but I see you
I've been working remotely for the past 3+ years, so my colleagues are spread across the world in Canada, Philippines, and Brazil. All 3 countries I've never visited before, aha.
It's a fairly “independent” job, as it's very rare we work together on a singular task concurrently. Most “collaborative” tasks are more so in a pipeline where, when one person completes a said task, the output of that would be passed along to the next. Hence, we don't interact too much aside from some minor coordination, a biweekly team call, and for any clarifications about a certain task/work output.
I've got to say, my colleagues are so hardworking. I've been seeing so much of 2 of my colleagues from the Philippines online when I'm online, and they work throughout the night sometimes too, completing tasks at like 3-4 am but still working on more tasks in the afternoon or late mornings.
Although we aren't close and most of us are here as it's a rare opportunity to get a decent hourly pay from a remote job, especially in Southeast Asia, so it's nice to see that I'm not alone in this push.
It's nice knowing we're all in it together, even if we've never met.