desk duty
Sedentary police work
Desk duty is administrative work performed at a desk rather than in the field.
The term appears most often in law enforcement, where officers may be assigned desk duty as a temporary measure—either as punishment, during an investigation, or while recovering from injury: He was put on desk duty after the shooting incident.
The phrase carries connotations of restriction or demotion, suggesting someone has been sidelined from more active work.
- officeProfessional work location
- office workAdministrative job tasks
- paperworkAdministrative written tasks
- administrativeRelated to organization management
- clericalOf office duties
paper pusher · sedentary · cubicle · filing · bureaucracy · swivel chair · keyboard · stapler · routine · nine-to-five · indoor · light work · reassignment · off the beat · suspension · administrative leave · restricted · phone
- duty
- library workcataloging, shelving, circulation, lending, borrowing
- military dutiespatrol, kitchen patrol, night watch, standing watch, fireguard
- assignmentsassignment, task, job, chore, mission
- policeofficer, cop, officers, patrol, cops
- disciplinary actionsreprimand, warning, suspension, demotion, firing
desk dutyfieldwork
Research conducted on location
patrol duty · active duty · combat duty · boots on the ground · hazardous duty
desk dutyactive duty
Current military employment status
fieldwork · street patrol · active service · field operations · ground operations