The only reason the CEO would have for ringing me is if every Regional, Area, and Store Manager in the entire state of Queensland had suddenly and inexplicably resigned; in which case I’d have more pressing concerns than whether or not I should be concerned about the CEO calling me.
I work for a very large corporation. I have no idea who the CEO is, so if he didn’t tell me his title, I wouldn’t know who I was talking to. I think he – I’m pretty sure the CEO is a he – is located somewhere in California. I’d be very surprised he would be calling someone about 10 levels down in the organization. If he was on the phone, it most likely would be because he somehow got my number and was actually looking for someone 8 levels down in the organization.
Considering that the last thing I did before leaving the office on Friday was play ping-pong with the CEO on the table in the common area, sure. He probably wants to ask if I caught the Avalanche game last night.
When I worked at the bank, this actually happened…and I refused to believe at first that he was really the CEO, as I couldn’t fathom why the hell he would be calling me. Turns out one of the issues I’d recently solved (related to a big-business credit acccount) had originated with an associate of his, and he wanted the details on what exactly the problem had been.
I started picking up the phone more often – and toning down my skepticism just a notch – after that one.
There’s no way I’d be able to tell it was our Executive Director, so I’d answer it like I do all phone calls: “Department of Welfare! How can I help you?”
“Yes, Headmaster. Glee speaking - what can I do for you?”
Since I’m successful 
, what do I have to worry about?
Happened to me once, but I also knew it wasn’t for me so no panic. A visiting VP made a call from my office.
Heh, when I worked for Scholastic, the OP’s scenario was my managers greatest fear…as if it wasn’t bad enough that the semi autonamous nature of the supply chain side of the company tended to bypass alot of the normal chain of command routes. I was also kinda nominally famous in the company for some of my database work and was prone to speak my mind to people who were used to being told what they wanted to hear… The 3 corporate awards on my office wall for improvements to supply chain ops also put me on the radar to alot of head honchos 4-5 layers up (one of those awards shifted how we purchased millions of dollars in product, our systems had a flaw in the forecasting model that someone missed, it underreported sales on fast moving merchandise.)