Smith is a tidy man. I pass by his desk at night when I'm cleaning up, and his area is the only one that's perfect. Nothing is ever out of place. I've made a kind of study out of it. You know, paid lots of attention to it on account of it being so unusual. So I've noticed things.

"I'd say Smith must be a single man. There are no pictures of family on his desk or on the walls. Most people leave clues to their personal life in the office — photographs, items they picked up during vacations, stickers with funny sayings on them. But not Smith. In Smith's area, there is no trace of anything personal. Just some books and the computer. The books never change positions, which tells me he never has to look things up. So I think Smith must be a smart man, too.

"I've never met him. Or if I did, I never knew it. But I see him in my mind as a tall, thin guy with glasses who doesn't smile too often. He may be shy, too. Fastidious people are often shy. Maybe he's an accountant or a computer programmer. It's hard to say. But Smith makes my job interesting. I look at his desk every night to see if anything has changed."

CATHERINE, THE RECEPTIONIST
"Smith is okay, a little shy maybe. He says 'hello' to me every morning. Just a 'hello,' though — nothing more, not even my name. I didn't know his name for months. But then, I didn't say much to him either.

"Then one afternoon he had a visitor. It was a woman — a beautiful woman in her late twenties or early thirties. She asked to speak to Bobby. 'Bobby who?' I asked. She looked confused; then she smiled and said, 'Bobby Smith. I thought everyone knew him as Bobby.' Well, this was interesting. I mean, I suddenly realized Smith had a first name — Robert. I had never thought of him as anyone's 'Bobby' before.

"I paged Smith, and he came downstairs. When he saw the woman, his face turned white like he'd seen a ghost. She called his name, and he stood still. I thought he was about to cry or something, but instead he just shook his head, as if to say, 'No.' He didn't say anything. Just shook his head. Then he turned and walked back upstairs, slowly. The woman just watched him. Then she turned around and walked out. I never saw her again. I don't know if she was a girlfriend, sister, or friend. Smith never said anything about her.

"In this job, I meet all kinds of people. I've learned a lot about people while working here as a receptionist. But Smith is still a mystery to me. I don't know much about him. All I know is that his first name is Robert but that some people call him Bobby, that he says 'hello' to me every morning like clockwork, and that there was once a beautiful woman in his life. Oh yeah, and he's about 5 feet 7 inches tall, has short hair and a big mustache, wears an earring, and obviously works out a lot."

WILSON, THE BOSS
"Smith is a strange guy, but a good worker. He never misses a day and is even willing to work nights or weekends to get the job done. His work is always neat and well organized. Personally, I wish he would get rid of his earring and mustache, but that's just him, I guess.

"I hired him five years ago as an entry-level accountant. His work in that position was good. He was promoted to a senior accountant position very quickly, as if someone up there in the company ranks were watching out for him. Usually it takes the best accountant five to seven years to make it to senior status; Smith made it in three. Last fall I asked him to take charge of a major audit, and he's been diligently working on that project ever since.

"Smith never talks about his life outside of work. And I never ask him. He seems to like it that way. But from the way he is built, I'd say he spends a lot of time working out at a gym. He drives a vintage black sports car, a Speedster, and it is always clean. He leaves it open during the day with a pair of Ray-Bans on the dash, always in the same position.

"I figure he comes from a wealthy family. He graduated from Stanford. But he doesn't act like a Californian. I'd say he's from Pittsburgh. I don't know why I say that. Actually, to be honest, Smith scares me a little bit. I don't know anyone who's as calm and collected and perfect as Smith is. In movies it's always the mass murderer who's like that. Not that I think Smith is that way. But I wouldn't be surprised, either. I wish his starched shirts would just one time come back from the cleaners with a rip in them or something. I know that sounds small. I can't help it. Smith does that to me."

FELICIA, A COWORKER
"Robert is my good friend. He's a warm, sensitive person with a heart of gold. He and I have talked a lot over the past couple of years — mostly about our dreams. We both want to work hard, save a lot of money, and be able to do something else with our lives while we are still young enough to enjoy it.

"Robert came from a poor family. He grew up moving around from town to town while his mother looked for work in construction. He had two brothers and a sister, all older. He was the baby. His father was killed in the Vietnam War. His older brothers are both in the military and don't have much in common with Robert, and his sister is a successful lawyer in Washington. Robert showed me a picture of her once; she's a beautiful woman. They had a big argument a while back. He wouldn't say much about it, except that he hasn't seen her since. His mother died of lung cancer two years ago.

"Robert worked hard in school but won an athletic scholarship to Stanford. He was a gymnast. Or still is, because he spends two or three nights a week working with underprivileged kids downtown, teaching them gymnastics. And he is big in Adult Children of Alcoholics, which I took him to. That's a whole story in itself. He has a lot of hobbies, which, when he does them, aren't exactly hobbies anymore. He is such a perfectionist! Like that car of his, for instance. He built it himself, out of a kit. And you should see his apartment."

JENKINS, THE RETIRED CEO
"Robert Smith is one of the company's finest employees. And he is an exceptional young man. I recruited him at Stanford when I was teaching there right after I retired. Since then, I've followed his career. I asked him not to say much about our relationship because some people might get the wrong idea. I want him to make it on his own, which he has. I put in a good word for him here and there, but never anything too pushy.

"I knew his father in Vietnam. He served in my command and was a good soldier. He was due to be shipped home later in the week when he was killed. It was sad. I wrote the letter to his family myself. When I got out of the Army, I moved into the private sector. You can imagine how odd it was for me to walk into that accounting class at Stanford and see Robert Smith, who looks just like his dad except for the mustache and earring, sitting in the front row. I couldn't believe it. Still can't.

"In a way, I feel related to Robert. He still comes to visit us on the holidays. I like that."

ASSIGNMENT
1.You are the executive recruiter (or headhunter) who compiled the preceding information about Smith from interviews with his colleagues. You also have Smith's résumé and performance appraisal reports to supplement the interviews. Your job is to make a personality profile of Smith for a firm that may be interested in hiring him. What would you write? How would you explain the different perspectives on Smith? If you were Robert Smith, what would you say about the interview statements?
2.We live complex (and often contradictory) lives as situated individuals in organizations. This should make us sensitive to the various ways in which meanings are constructed through communication. Construct an investigation of yourself, using interview statements by others describing who you are. Supplement these statements with your own résumé. What do the statements tell you about yourself? About your construction of others? About yourself as a situated individual in an organization? About the complexities of interpreting meaning?
3.As a student of communication, you are interested in finding ways to improve your own and others' interpretations of meanings. Review the case study as if you were a communication consultant working with the executive recruiter. Your job is to help the headhunter construct better follow-up questions and produce a complete report on Smith. What questions would help explain the different views of Smith?