When I signed on and my friend asked me how long I would stay in this career, I replied that I will stay on as long as I am well taken care of by my bosses.

Up till this day, I had very supportive superiors, until I got myself saddled with my most recent assignment. Supposedly, we get to learn from the really senior people. It turned out that the three young officers worked our asses off trying to get presentations in place, and while admittedly we did not do a good job due to a lack of guidance from our "mentors", what really disturbed me (or us) was their apparent willingness to leave us in the fray to answer to our ultimate boss.

I have to agree with Nic here, I have never, ever been reprimanded by anyone to the extent whereby I dare not look directly at him. And I can almost picture my "mentor" whistling away, as if we were never his charge