Again, I NEED to Quit

This is a gripe about work post...

Two weeks ago, I was sitting at my desk, minding my own business. Possibly even getting work done. The phone rang. It was an outside line. Those always scare me. It was our main sales rep calling, with a rep from John Deere on the line. They had a few questions for me regarding an issue on one of our parts. I thought I handled the call well, answered everything correctly, took down the action items, and was lucid, professional, and helpful.

Last week, the sales rep apparently got a call from the Deere guy, who mentioned how impressed he was with my contribution to his phone call. The rep then emailed me, my boss, and the owner to mention how the Deere guy was impressed with me.

Today, my boss stopped by to tell me that the owner had spoken to him about that email, and asked him to reprimand me. Yeah, apparently when the email came through, the sales department (internal - not the reps) FREAKED OUT. So, I ended up in trouble for speaking with a customer without going through Sales.

Silly me assumed that since the sales rep called me, Sales was in on the whole thing. Apparently not. One of the engineers was in the room when I got the reprimand. He later told me that he gets yelled routinely for speaking to customers, as well.