"months to years -- and in the meantime my line management still had to keep me employed somehow. On a number of occasions I had proposals rejected on the groun

"months to years -- and in the meantime my line management still had to keep me employed somehow. On a number of occasions I had proposals rejected on the grounds that what I was proposing was impossible, when in fact I had already done the work in the intervening time." That bit made me chuckle...