rubber room

n. a space where a worker subject to a disciplinary hearing or other administrative action waits and does no work; generally, a place or personal mind-set of isolation. Subjects: English, Business, Employment, Slang

Etymological Note: After rubber room, a literal reference to a padded cell, which is, according to the New Oxford American Dictionary, “a room in a psychiatric hospital with padded walls to prevent violent patients from injuring themselves.”

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Citations: 1983 William Safire New York Times (Apr. 11) “Ozymondias O’Neill”: Reluctant to mess with the Speaker’s monument without strong backup, the G.S.A. boss, Gerald Carmen, asked for a report from his Office of Oversight, which is headed by William Clinkscales, who gained fame during the Carter years by blowing the whistle on Federal waste. For that, the Carterites had placed him in a “rubber room”—bureaucratese for an office without work to do—until Republicans came in and made him the agency’s official whistleblower. 1984 Thomas Boswell @ Augusta, Georgia Washington Post (Apr. 11) “Slumping Watson Is ‘Discouraged’”: Once, Watson boasted that he played golf in his own private “rubber room:” a state of concentration and confidence so deep that the perils of the course and his own psyche could not reach him. 1984 Globe and Mail (Toronto, Canada) (June 20) “School board plans alterations Reaction mixed on isolation room” p. M4: The use of a controversial isolation room in a Dundas, Ont., elementary school has left parents with mixed feelings.…The room, which has been referred to as “the rubber room,” and “the box,” was constructed in January at Central Park School in Dundas at a cost of about $1,800 and put into use without consultation with parents or trustees. 1986 Toronto Star (Canada) (Dec. 3) “Railway clerks get $100 a day to do nothing” p. D23: Deatherage, a 31-year railroad veteran, and two other Burlington-Northern employees are paid for their time in what they call the “rubber room.” The firm calls it an alternative work location. The three have been reporting to work in the 2.5 by 3-metre room (8 by 10 feet) at the El Bandera motel in Yakima since Oct. 13, when Burlington-Northern sold a division that employed them as clerks. 2000 Liz Willen Newsday (Long Island, New York) (Apr. 27) “Levy Focuses on ‘Rubber Rooms’” p. A28: Upset that hundreds of educators awaiting disciplinary hearings are paid to sit and do nothing in so-called “rubber rooms,” Interim Schools Chancellor Harold Levy said yesterday that he’ll put them to work and close the hundreds of rooms throughout the school system. 2006 John Christie Kennebec Journal (Augusta, Maine) (July 2) “Do not believe everything that you’re told”: He cites the process in New York city, where the best they can do with teachers that are incompetent, violent or sex offenders is to put them in what is called a “rubber room,” a segregated space where they do no work all day while still getting full pay because the process for dismissal takes years.

Posted 5 Jul 06 | Permalink | Tell a Friend