Newbie question
I understand that a provider may ask for a work email for verification purposes.  
However, is it normal for the provider to reach out via the work email to confirm it?
I'm new to this and literally the second provider I attempted to verify with sent a message to my work email that is now a permanent record on the server. I'm a little upset that this happened.  Is it normal and expected?

Yes and no.  

I do email verification but I have a "vanilla" email address that I use. If googled, nothing comes up at all. I NEVER use my Callie email to email a gentleman at work.  

Gents, or Kingtypo, ask the lady if she has a secondary email that she will be using instead.

Lesson learned.  Don't give up personal info.

I'd suggest that you sign up for P411 as a means for verification.   P411 does have a verification process that does require that they do some work verification ( which I had some concerns about ).   You can contact their Customer Support and go through the different methods of verfication and they will figure out what you are the most comfortable with.  But from my experience, it was rather harmless in the end ( real simple and no way for your Company to track what you are trying to do here ).  You will need to give some work information regardless, but they have plenty of reasons to protect your identity from a Business POV.

Many Providers use P411 as well.  IMHO; if a provider won't accept P411 as a safe means for verification, I'd just move on.  There are plenty of fish in the ocean.    

Join one of the verification services as you gain more experience.  The fee is nominal.  As you earn more ok's or we have met's,  you will usually not need to disclose any personal info.  If a Provider still insists on disclosing personal information...move on!