My trip to the USA - part 2

Well the next exciting installment - the brow beating I got from my Boss' boss after having been awake for 20 hours (14 of those were spent travelling) and being somewhat jetlagged!

The scene: The bar in the hotel where we were all staying in the presence of most of the northern european sales team.

The opening gambit...

R - I thought I told you that your job was office based
K - well yes it is
R- Then why are you talking about going to the Benelux countries in November?
K- Because I thought that 2 days out of the year to visit the offices I am meant to look after would not be an issue.
R - If you need for me to write out what you should be doing on a day to day basis and sign it I will if that is what it takes!
K- I am sorry I don't understand where this has come from
R- You should not be meeting customers - we have engineers to do that
K- You may not be aware that I have an Engineering degree?
R- I am not doubting you competance!
K- OK I just wanted to be sure
R - I think that you should be a central point for people to come fro for information, you should run reports and keep the information up to date
K- That is not what I was told I would be doing!!
R- I told you that you were going to be an Academic ISR*
K- No you never did - I was told that I was going to do a strategic academic role as a step on from being a manager. You did know that I was a manager?
Long pause
K- I don't think that this is the best time to have this conversation, I am very tired.
R- Yes, I think we need to talk about this when we are back in the office


*ISR = Inside Sales Representitive = the job I was doing 5 years ago and an entry level position in the company