Failing to understand Heirarchical structures at work

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Yesterday I had a really, really bad day at work. I worked really hard, working 1 1/2 hours over my time- and I don't get overtime pay. Yet over the course of the day I was 'told' at least 6 times by other co-workers.

I work for a large international corporation which has a very hierarchical structure. As an Aspie I find I am constantly breaking unwritten social rules about who I can talk to in the work place, what I can ask them, what response to expect, who I'm not allowed to talk to and so forth... I'm a junior manager, I supervise a fleet of about 35 truck drivers, so I'm 2nd notch from the bottom of the ladder.

My boss is a middle manager who supervises all the junior managers, he reports to an operations manager who supervises all the middle managers.

The operations manager reports to the vice president of our city, who supervises all the senior supervisors, about 8 people, he reports to the president of our city company. Our president is but one president out of about 180 internationally.

She reports to the national director (Canada), the national directors’ report to the CEO who is based in the corporate head office in Texas, who is at the top of the chain.

So I'm nobody basically. My job is essentially a sales support role; I act as a 'bridge' between the course, rude, dirty truck drivers and the sales team. My job is to process information up the ladder to anyone higher up that needs the information to function, also to communicate corporate policy down to the truck drivers that I supervise to ensure rules are followed. Stressful doesn't say it.

Yesterday, my boss was out of town on company training. I had a situation that required a decision 'above my pay grade' and I went to my bosses, boss. He was upset that I had approached him at all, although he provided a solution. I spoke to a sales executive about an account of his that was having a delivery problem, he out and out accused me of bothering him without cause when there were other people at the sales desk who I could have contacted instead. I had 4 other issues yesterday, where I broke unknown and unwritten social rules, and today I'm very upset about this. Kicking myself for not understanding social cues doesn't accomplish anything. (I do it anyways)

Does anyone have any insights as how to behave in structured hierarchical workplaces??

Figure out what problems could come up where you are not allowed at your organization to make a decisions and then meet with your boss to get a list of people to contact for the solutions to those problems. I might also suggest that you ask your boss for an ordered list of people to contact when he is not available. The list should be written. This should solve these "Who do I talk to?" issues.

structured hierarchies are not for aspies...
and especially job related to communication

At my job at Sega, the president of the company walked by, saw my artwork, would want to talk about it, then start dropping by just to see new stuff. Boy did that upset other people! One time she liked a little futuristic Sega.net logo I had made, and she wanted it to be the new logo for that division. Well, that did not go over well at all, and I got accused of all kinds of stuff! One lady came over to my office literally shouting about how I was trying to ruin her career!

I don't get it either.

I study in a military school and I think that everybody have difficulties in accepting hierarchies. To break the rules isn't a big problem at all, you just have to be careful to not let no one anger with you.