Work from anywhere: Allstream staff share their stories

It’s that time of year again when we grab our hat and sunglasses, slather on the sunscreen and pack our bags for a few weeks of much-deserved time off. But these days, some people are taking longer trips, turning vacations into workations and tapping into the work from anywhere (WFA) reality.

Work from home has expanded to work from anywhere, whether that means working from the cottage, a beach or even off a boat. We talk to Allstream staff about the weirdest or coolest places they’ve ever worked from—and their go-to connectivity hacks.

Teresa Nelson, Senior Sales Training Manager

I was fishing on the Oregon Coast and received a call from a new sales hire needing help, so I answered. Having all our tools available on mobile devices came in handy. Also, we have amazingly good reception on the coast, even in the ocean! And we did manage to catch this beauty a little later!

Noel Coates, Sales Engineer

About 15 years ago I was vacationing in Ireland when a sales rep asked me to join a meeting and do a demo for a customer that we had been working on for a couple of months. I ended up joining the meeting from a 750-year-old pub using the owner’s laptop, my cell phone and what was at that time called Mitel MiCollab Web client—what we would now call UCCV!

Anna Boustead, Senior Account Executive

On my latest trip on my motorcycle, I had to take a call, so I set up office in a Burger King on the Navajo Nation in Arizona. I took another couple of calls in Sonoma at my hotel, but Burger King definitely weird.

Katie Brundage, Product Training Coordinator

I love working remotely from home, but sometimes my co-workers and I have to work out a space arrangement. Shortly after this photo, I bought a window perch so my colleagues can now lounge off-desk, though they sometimes drop in on WebEx calls.

Main image: baona/iStock
All other images: Contributed