Apocalypse Now

Picture this scenario:

It's a calm, collected, quiet Thursday afternoon, with the Orlando breeze rustling through the trees. A storm is brewing outside.

Along with inside the halls of the Youth Sales department.

It seems to be a normal day. Interns scurrying about in an attempt to look occupied. Managers restlessly watching the clock until the prearranged event for all Marketing departments in the late afternoon away from the office.

The prearranged event that changed everything. It was meant to be a celebration of what the company had accomplished, as well as a look toward the future goals. Instead, it left a horrid path in its wake.

At least in the eyes of the three new interns.

During the normal day, one person watches the youth phone hotline in the morning, and one in the afternoon. It's never been a painful experience before. Sometimes it is actually quite cheery (where else can you end a call with "Have a magical day!" without sounding insane?!) Until, that is, all the supervisors and managers leave for the afternoon event thinking that the two other departments we worked with were staying behind from the event.

However, these other two departments were gone, with the others, to enjoy the festivities, leaving all their potential phone calls to funnel into the Youth Sales Hotline.

And the Youth Hotline was manned by three lowly interns, in a state of panic, as call after call rolled in with impossible questions and few solutions.

Three hours later, and countless phone messages to every Manager blackberry on our list, we managed to survive. Excruciating? Yes. Terrifying? Yes. Downright memorable? Oh Yes.

We survived!