Knowing Colleagues Availability Matters in Remote and Hybrid Teams

One thing I’ve come to appreciate about hybrid work is how important it is to know whether someone is available. It sounds like a small thing. But in my experience, it has a surprisingly large effect on how easily people work together.

The small signals we lose when working apart

In a physical office, I rarely had to think about availability. I could see whether someone was at their desk, talking to a colleague, heading out for lunch or clearly concentrating on something. Those signals weren’t perfect, but they gave me enough context to decide whether to ask a quick question now or come back later.

Remote and hybrid work changes that.

When we’re in different locations, I can’t simply look across the room. I have to decide whether to call, send a message or wait.

I’ve found that this creates small amounts of friction throughout the day. A question that might have taken 30 seconds becomes a message that sits unanswered for hours. And something that might have been resolved in passing turns into a meeting.

None of these moments seems particularly important on their own. But when they add up, they change the rhythm of teamwork.

Availability needs context

This is one reason availability is important to us in BeZoned. We already show the familiar Microsoft Teams status icons directly on people’s avatars in our online office. But a green icon only means that colleagues are online. It doesn’t necessarily tell you that they’re available for a conversation.

In BeZoned, you can trust the status, and you can approach a colleague without worrying that you’re interrupting. That makes it much easier to reach out, and it strengthens the sense of connection in the team.

But I’ve also learned that an icon can only tell part of the story.

There is a big difference between being unavailable for ten minutes and being away for the afternoon. If I’m travelling, working from another office or coming back after lunch, a simple status indicator doesn’t communicate that.

That thinking led to our status message feature. Now I can add a short message such as “Back after lunch around 14:00” or “Travelling today. Call my mobile if urgent.”

It’s a very small amount of information, but it gives colleagues the context they need to decide what to do next.

Keeping it simple matters

I also think availability tools only work when using them doesn’t become another task.

In BeZoned, I can click Set Status Message and write an update. The message is then available for everyone to see. Because the information synchronises with Microsoft 365 and Teams, I don’t have to keep repeating the same update in different places.

That simplicity matters to me. The goal isn’t to create another process around hybrid work but to recreate some of the everyday awareness that happens naturally when people share a physical office.

A small signal with a big practical effect

My experience with remote and hybrid work has made me pay much more attention to these small but very important signals.

Good collaboration isn’t only about scheduled meetings or having the right communication tools. It also depends on knowing when someone is around, when it’s a good moment to talk and when it’s better to wait. Without that, we have to plan every interaction with our colleagues as a meeting. Maybe this sounds familiar?

With the online office we can now align naturally throughout the day and make it work without an overflow of scheduled meetings.

Author: Frederikke Harkjær Hare from BeZoned