paper-pusher

Related to paper-pusher: pencil pusher

paper pusher

1. Someone whose work is primarily to do with filing, filling in, or reviewing paperwork; a bureaucrat. Sometimes hyphenated. I just got sick of being a paper pusher, so I quit my job and moved to Thailand to surf and teach English. I know being married to a paper pusher can't be terribly exciting, but at least she's got a stable, well-paying job, right?
2. A bureaucrat, especially one who adheres inflexibly to the details of the bureaucracy or administrative procedure. Sometimes hyphenated. He's just a paper pusher—he can't get anything changed about the way the government collects your taxes. Ugh. I've got some paper-pusher looking over my case at the moment, and she's being so anal about over little detail!
3. dated One who writes bad or dishonored checks, especially out of habit or as a criminal profession. Sometimes hyphenated. Apparently there's been a paper pusher passing through the state, depositing bad checks on Fridays and then skipping town before the banks are open on Monday. He was a paper-pusher for a while back in college. Nothing too serious, mostly just did it to pay for groceries or school supplies when he was low on cash.
See also: paper, pusher
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

paper-pusher

1. n. a bureaucrat; a clerk in the military services; any office worker. (see also pencil-pusher.) If those paper-pushers can’t get their work done on time, make them stay late.
2. n. someone who passes bad checks. (see also paper, paper-hanger.) The bank teller spotted a well-known paper-pusher and called the cops.
McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions
See also:
  • in demand
  • flat chat
  • flat strap
  • cop on
  • makeout artist
  • make-out artist
  • bleeding edge
  • muckety muck
  • crater
  • crater-face
References in periodicals archive
And, if some London-based paper-pushers have their way, that's the way things will continue.
The Journal: Jam today - and tomorrow
Paying paper-pushers $1.50 an hour instead of $20.00 makes a lot of economic sense.
Offshoring comp claims? Sink that: sending first-notice-of-loss claims to Pakistan and medical bill review to China is sure to leave you flat-footed
'What Jonathan Morgan fails to understand is many of these extra staff members are not paper-pushers as he calls them, but people who deliver front-line services such as safeguarding vulnerable adults and children in residential care.'
ADVICE TO COUNCIL CLOCKS UP pounds 4M BILL
Councils are often stereotyped as slow, bureacratic and unresponsive - with departments full of 'paper-pushers'.
Medway Council
THE paper-pushers at the MoD don't know what it is to fight.
GULF WAR II: THE AFTERMATH: BLAIR: I'LL SORT WIDOWS' CASH; PM acts after our campaign
"We don't want to find ourselves employing so many layers of paper-pushers and have no-one left to provide services."
Services 'at risk' of red tape
"We're paper-pushers now," says Gerald Lorge, a federal meat inspector.
It's what's for dinner
The answer, we suspect, is simply that people who develop (and buy) software these days are mostly white-collar paper-pushers. They send memos to each other, schedule meetings, and create various kinds of intangible products.
What happened to bar code applications?
But these weren't just any paper-pushers relieving a little occupational stress.
Recreation without taxation
The film is a biting, darkly comic look at the life of the women of the Israeli military --and it showed audiences that for these female secretaries and paper-pushers, boredom can be just as dangerous as battle.
First-time filmmaker declares war: Talya Lavie's Tribeca fest winner adds a femme-centered view to Israel's military canon
If human hands are not needed, there will presumably be fewer paper-pushers required to run the council's administrative processes.
How the small things will make a very big difference; New technology is modernising Birmingham City Council's arcane working methods. But there is a distinct unwillingness to talk about how many jobs will disappear, observes Public Affairs Editor Paul Dale
As for market size--well, it's worth remembering that the Fortune 500 are primarily industrial companies, and the productivity improvements that really matter to senior management take place on the factory floor, not among droves of paper-pushers.
Catalyst/RPE: a manufacturing blockbuster?
Small and medium sized businesses requiring urgent support risk going to the wall before AWM's paper-pushers reach a decision about financial assistance, it is claimed.
THE BIRMINGHAM POST: AWM's mission impossible could be a big chance
Nor does a move to 'frontline' activity necessarily involve sacking paper-pushers and hiring doctors and teachers, or everybody doing something that they are not doing already.
City View: Huffing, puffing Gordon and the paper-pushers
WHILE most firms grumble about taxes and red tape, Serco is one of the few to benefit from Government paper-pushers.
SUZY in the CITY: TIPS OF THE DAY: BUY BUY