Go on! Turn your mind back two years. Back before COVID-19. Back when you worked in an office and at home, you slept. (OK, so you slept in the office, too, but let's not get bogged down here.)

So, you're at work and you get a phone call from your boss. They need to see you immediately, if not sooner. You stop what you're doing (yes, it's Candy Crush) and walk briskly to your manager's office.

"Good news!" they tell you. "You're getting a promotion and a raise."

"That is good news," you say. You're happy, of course, but you wonder if there's a catch.

"There's a catch," your manager says. "You'll have to work out of our office in Lawton, Oklahoma."

Now, Lawton, Oklahoma, is probably a wonderful place, you think, as you type up your resignation letter, but it just so happens that you like the place you live, which isn't perfect, but which also isn't Lawton, Oklahoma. Or Punta Gorda, Florida. Or Faribault, Minnesota. Or any of a dozen, teeny-tiny, itsy-bitsy nowhere towns where, according to an article by Jennifer Liu on CNBC's website, people have been moving — moving not because their company has mandated it, but because they decided to do so, all on their own.

You can understand, sort of, why people are moving. Home has always been where the heart is, but since COVID-19, it is also where the paycheck is. If you're working from home, you can really work from anywhere, even Lawton, Oklahoma. And why would you not? The homes are bigger. The rents are lower. The cost of living is miniscule. Who cares if you can't get a latte or a spin class or a Wi-Fi connection?

The irony here is that the places where people like you are choosing to live are exactly the same places where people like you would never, ever want to live if forced to work there. All of which brings me to the interesting email I received recently from kayak.com.

"Working from home has become a new way of life and as of late, it's become easier to work from pretty much anywhere," the travel site reminded me. "Let our 'Work From Wherever Guide' be your playbook in discovering destinations that could become your next remote headquarters."

Kayak's guide does not include information on Lawton, Oklahoma, but it does provide the 411 on 10 other interesting burbs, including Lisbon, Portugal, and Buenos Aires, Argentina. They're places you've probably thought about visiting on vacation, and, really, wouldn't your level of job satisfaction move up a tick if you could end the workday in your Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, home office with a dip in the Pacific, just footsteps from your door? Or, what about attending your next Zoom meeting from a table at Sophie's Rooftop Bar & Restaurant, located at The Dean Hotel, with a killer view of Dublin stretched out before you?

While the Kayak guide does offer many lugubrious ideas for relocating your home office, there are some spots I think would work better than any of the top "10 trending workcation destinations."

Consider the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania. By moving your home office into a tent in the Grumeti Game Reserve you would feel right at home, surrounded by wild animals, prowling outside your workstation, waiting for an opportunity to tear you to shreds.

Just like dealing with Human Resources here at home.

And what about Yakutsk, Russia?

This bustling burg, 280 miles south of the Artic Circle, definitely qualifies as the jewel of the permafrost. Set up shop in an igloo for a month of balmy 67-degree weather and you'll be prepared to deal with the cold-hearted individuals who make up your company's management team. (Do a good job and you could get the company to lease you a Tesla dog sled as a perk.)

The Manu National Park in Peru is another interesting possibility. Located by the side of the Amazon River, it's home to a number of local tribes who are basically living life in the Stone Age — pretty much like everyone you know who works in IT. Not that technology isn't available. Your iPhone 13 probably won't work, but you should be able to get excellent service from a Flint Ax 2, and enjoy an excellent, organic diet of grass-raised, free-range armadillos and jaguars, assuming you're fast enough to catch one.

(A note of caution — recruiters in the tribal areas of the Amazonian rain forest are reputed to be real headhunters who practice cannibalism — something to consider before you accept an invitation to dinner.)

Bob Goldman was an advertising executive at a Fortune 500 company. He offers a virtual shoulder to cry on at [email protected]. To find out more about Bob Goldman and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

Photo credit: Peggy_Marco at Pixabay