Banker

Definition : helpful person ready to lend you an umbrella when the weather is nice and take it back when it starts to rain.

End of year reviews are already starting. The revenues of my company, before tax, went from 16,270,000 to 15,207,000, in other words a decrease of 7%, considering I could have feared between 30 and 50%.
Profits are seriously down, so as margins and cash-flow. The coming year will also be tough, except that I can already see the end of the tunnel with the release of the 2009 vintage.

So, today, one of my bank directors gave me a beautiful and big golf umbrella (perhaps hiring a managing director made him believe that I will start playing golf), and introduced me to his successor. These days, banks tend to replace their old, experienced and costly employees by young graduates fresh out of school and costing much less.