A conversation with a remote worker begins asynchronously (usually in an email)
That's your problem there.
With your team (and cooperating teams), you should be using real time chat for group communication and IM for personal communication.
Now, HR and Finance and Marketing and Social Influence departments will probably be in annoying "can barely write competent sentences" email territory, but those aren't your immediate concerns.
If everybody is sitting in an open office plan, it's common to start talking to someone over IM, then turn to them and continue the conversation in person, then jump back to IM (especially if you're talking about design or architectural decisions someone else nearby has a strong negative opinion about and you don't want to get them "started").
These days everybody goes into work, jumps into chat, signs on to their local presence system, then exists as "at work." It doesn't have to be at work though. With our erratic work schedules, you don't even know if someone is in the office when you're talking with them ("Oh, you're in China this week? Guess we're not getting lunch then.").
Except, when I'm working and want to focus, I sign out of IM (or turn off notifications) and don't check email. Email is best because you can answer it when you're ready to think about it, rather than giving some half-coherent answer on IM while you desperately try to keep your mind focused on what you were doing before the interruption.
That's your problem there.
With your team (and cooperating teams), you should be using real time chat for group communication and IM for personal communication.
Now, HR and Finance and Marketing and Social Influence departments will probably be in annoying "can barely write competent sentences" email territory, but those aren't your immediate concerns.
If everybody is sitting in an open office plan, it's common to start talking to someone over IM, then turn to them and continue the conversation in person, then jump back to IM (especially if you're talking about design or architectural decisions someone else nearby has a strong negative opinion about and you don't want to get them "started").
These days everybody goes into work, jumps into chat, signs on to their local presence system, then exists as "at work." It doesn't have to be at work though. With our erratic work schedules, you don't even know if someone is in the office when you're talking with them ("Oh, you're in China this week? Guess we're not getting lunch then.").