A culture that rises to the ‘challenge’

Challenge by definition is ‘a call to take part in a contest or competition, especially a duel,’ but here at Bandwidth, we use challenge as a way of life to encourage challenging yourself to be the best you that you can be that extends into your personal life.

Each year, our fearless leader, CEO David Morken challenges us to not only perform well at our jobs, but also encourages us to expand the ‘challenge’ beyond our day-to-day work tasks through exercise challenges that promise the reward of a ‘free’ personal day off.

Here at Bandwidth, we believe in the whole person both inside and outside the walls. What does this mean to our employees? A chance to take advantage of a vast array of offerings that truly define our culture by promoting teamwork, camaraderie and a little bit of good ‘ol fashion healthy competition.

The 2015 Challenge

Though we’ve been offered several workout challenges in the past, this year’s challenge adds another dimension. It encompasses not only our physical bodies, but also our minds and spirits as well. Here’s how it works.

For our 2015 ‘Whole Person Challenge,’ each employee who chooses to participate must commit to completing 40 hours of physical activity, reading a book from a list of encouraging titles and completing two tasks on a list that range from a financial health course, to uncluttering your mind.

For me, this has provided a much-needed jumpstart to really examine how I want to see my future with not only my career, but thinking further into retirement and family. By allowing ‘double hours’ for working out with your family members, it has encouraged my husband and I to walk almost every night with our dog. In this way, we’re not only getting exercise, but we’re also unwinding and spending quality time together. In such a busy and bustling world that we all live in, it is very easy for us to move through our lives forgetting these key fundamentals like spending good quality time with our families. Through the financial course, we’re working with each other on creating a budget to help save for our future and give us peace of mind knowing that we’re taking charge of our lives in our 30’s and preparing for the years ahead.

A Rich and Competitive Past

In some of the past challenges, we’ve competed with internal business units for a day off by challenging employees to earn double miles running, walking, hitting the gym or playing basketball with other team members. Last fall, we had four teams participate in the Tuna 200 Relay Race from Raleigh to the North Carolina coast, resulting in our competitive team beating the course record from the previous two years. To encourage the company to participate, we challenged everyone to complete 200 miles of running and walking—and the winning group got a day off!

Rewards that Keep on Giving

The most encouraging thing from some of our past physical challenges has been seeing people who were intimidated about running a mile six months ago, now signing up for 5Ks and even half marathons. I myself am one of those people who never thought I would ever complete a half marathon and have now completed three to date. I have Bandwidth to thank for the encouragement and giving me that extra push to do it.  It is this “can do” mentality that continues to make Bandwidth great, through a team of people that’s striving for excellence in everything we do. And rest assured that win or lose, the Bandwidth way will continue to encourage everyone to answer the call of challenge and persevere through anything.

To view current positions on our teams, check out our job postings here.