The best analogy I can think of is that I don’t have a broom.
It’s like I was hired to sweep the floor and the boss says, “Okay, we want you to sweep this floor. But we don’t have an extra broom, so do the best you can.”
So I go along my merry way, using the side of my hand an a piece of 8.5 X 11 paper (with the company logo) as a dust pan.
At first, my co-sweepers admire my determination.
“Wow, look what a good job Gazelle is doing sweeping the floor without a broom. She’s amazing. She’s catching on so quickly!”
A month or two go by and I start feeling like I’m not really contributing. The floor is huge and I’ve cleared only a small, 4 X 4 square of it. It takes me five times longer than my co-sweepers to clear the same space.
“Boss, I wonder whether I’m really doing much good here. I know you don’t have any extra brooms, so could you maybe send me to a training class so I can learn to make my own broom?”
“Wow Gazelle, you really feel that way? But you really do contribute! Shoot, I’d rather have one employee with your can-do attitude and sunny disposition than ten employees with brooms…”
“Besides, we have no money in the budget.”
Time churns on, months go by, I’m doing the best I can.
Then, after a stressful day, my co-sweeper yells at me.
“I don’t have time to answer your questions. I have more sweeping than I can handle!”
I talk to the boss, who admits that this co-sweeper has been complaining about the job I’m doing with my sweeping. Then he drops the bombshell: All of my co-workers have extra brooms! Extra brooms that they won’t share with me because they want the boss to think they’re the only ones who can sweep well! The boss doesn’t know how to get them to loan me their extra brooms. He can’t send me to class to learn how to make my own broom. He can’t give me the coveted Baseboard Duster position and so basically, he gives up.
Well, dear Dopers, I have news. Soon, soon, I shall have a broom!
In mid-October, I got an interview.
Today, I got the job.
Shoot, it’s better than a broom! It’s a riding vacuum cleaner, for God’s sake! w00t!