Dictionary definition of “swivel chair job”

swivel chair job

n. a desk job; a sinecure or patronage position; a rocking chair job. Subjects: English, Employment

Editorial Note: Often derogatory, especially in the military.

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Citations: 1911 Lincoln Evening News (Neb.) (Jan. 2) “A Miracle of Re-Birth” p. 8B: Other dilated sarcastically on the difference between a swivel chair job at the city hall and one which kept the holder thereof on his feet all day between counters or in factories under conditions calculated to endow the worker with sore feet, bunions, corns and rheumatism. 1915 Chicago Daily Tribune (June 29) “Twelfth St. Condemnation Cases Before Courty Today” p. 16: For such a citizen out of work, the cases offer a swivel chair job at $3 a day. 1920 Gettysburg Times (Pa.) (Dec. 15) “Says Youth Did Not Fire Shot” p. 3: Last year a hero, who had had some swivel-chair job during the war, came up here crowing about his valor. 1927 Syracuse Herald (N.Y.) (Feb. 27) p. 8: Jay F. Gould, Minnesota Game Commissioner, shows his is no swivel chair job. 1943 New York Times (June 28) “Senator Assails Big U.S. Payrolls” p. 27: Senator William Langer…charged yesterday that there are “three-quarters of a million young fellows of draft age now holding down swivel chair jobs instead of being in the armed services where they belong.” These young men holding down “cinch jobs"…are “mostly of rather wealthy parentage and of families of rather great influence.” 1962 Hal Wood Western Kansas Press (Oct. 6) “Tebbetts to New Cleveland Post” p. 5: Tebbetts subsequently went with the Braves as a vice president in 1959 and remained there in that capacity until September of 1961 when he stepped out of that swivel-chair job to return to the bench as Milwaukee manager.

Posted 27 Jul 05 | Permalink | Tell a Friend