pen pushers
Desk-bound paper workers
Pen pushers is a mildly disparaging term for office workers or bureaucrats whose jobs consist mainly of paperwork rather than physical or creative labor.
The expression suggests tedious, unimportant work that produces nothing tangible beyond shuffled documents.
The real decisions are made upstairs while we pen pushers fill out forms all day.
British English favors pen pushers while American English more often uses pencil pushers.
- functionaryMinor administrative worker
- desk jockeySedentary office worker
- paperworkAdministrative written tasks
- clerkOffice record-keeper
- bureaucratGovernment administrative official
scribes · office worker · civil servants · red tape · rubber stamp · secretaries · drone · administration · worker bee · office politics · memos · bean counters · carbon copy · archivists · registrars · middle managers · files · clock watchers
pen pushersmanual laborers
Workers using physical effort
blue-collar workers · tradespeople · craftsmen · roughnecks · grease monkeys
pen pushersdecision makers
Those empowered to choose
movers and shakers · doers · decision-makers · power brokers · executives
pen, push, pusher, pens, penned, penning, pushes, pushed, pushing