This is where I get hung up every time. As a software engineer, “I cannot collaborate with someone unless I am physically next to their body” is just not a tenable position.
We collaborate through reviews on PRs, virtual documents, links, search queries, and yes, conversations. But this has all happened in virtual settings for a long long time, and almost can’t work any other way.
It depends on the type of work. No, I've never needed a face-to-ace with a PR, and it'd be less efficient to do it face to face because it often needs more than 1-2 people in office looking at it.
But I have noticed that it's much harder to brainstorm ideas remotely. Where you want fast back and forth, everyone to speak their minds, notes to jot down. These aren't as efficient to do on a computer, at least not for my generation raised between tech and analog.
We collaborate through reviews on PRs, virtual documents, links, search queries, and yes, conversations. But this has all happened in virtual settings for a long long time, and almost can’t work any other way.