"It's funny that you ask this question because I can honestly say that my most challenging day on the job happened just a few short weeks ago. Upon arriving at work in the morning, I quickly learned that our entire network was down, and we couldn't work within our CRM or other programs that day. Many of my coworkers were visibly upset and questioning how to do our jobs that day. I huddled our group together to talk about solutions to the workday after we found out that the network likely wouldn't be fully up and running until late afternoon. While some colleagues carelessly went home for the day, I helped brainstorm how to keep our phone lines open, and my boss was very grateful for my efforts that day. What made this the most difficult for me was seeing how others responded so negatively over an issue we had no control over."

"Early in my career, I had a day where my entire office came down with the flu, and I was left alone with the receptionist for the day. As trained Financial Advisors, my colleagues also handled market analysis, retirement plans, and insurance plans. At first, the receptionist and I went about our business. After being flooded with calls and in-person visits to our office, we connected again to discuss a plan moving forward. We discussed what types of calls she could handle and which ones I would handle, and she triaged from there. I contacted the clients I had scheduled that day to reschedule, and we worked well from there. If I couldn't answer a question for a client of one of my colleagues, I ensured they knew my colleague would follow up as soon as possible. Looking back, I learned that on days where you have to break routine like we did, then that it was important to make a plan as early in the day as possible."