GLEAN

At Rockwell, a fellow Manager, Mike, asked me to look at an anonymous letter he received which concerned one of his supervisors who was a female. When he gave me the letter, he said, "You're not going to believe this catty letter"; he assumed the letter was from another female. He was seeking my advice about how to handle the allegations contained in the letter.

Part way through the letter, I screaked, "I KNOW who wrote this!" Mike asked, "How can you tell?" I answered, "I know of only one other person that we know who would use one of these words." Mike asked, "You can tell from just one word?"

I leapt up from the chair and told Mike to come to my office. I said, "As a matter of fact, I have something else he wrote where he used the word." Mike asked, "It's a he; it's one of your guys?" I said, "Yes, it's a HE, but he's your guy!" Mike asked, "How do you know something he's written?" I said, "All Managers receive copies of all grievances which go to the Third Step in the grievance procedure." Mike asked, "You mean you actually read those?" I said, "You're supposed to read them and offer comments." Mike said, "I can't believe that you remember a word he used." I said, "I commented to him about the word." Mike wondered, "Why would he do this?" I said, "Jealousy, anger, envy, fright; pick one; he probably thinks SHE might get a promotion."

When Mike confronted the man, he told him that he'd sent the letter to Plant Security to have fingerprints on the letter compared to his, which were on file. Mike had not done any of that, but the man didn't know that! The man confessed!

What was the word?

GLEAN

How many people do you know who use the word GLEAN?