the revolving door

revolving door

A cycle in which employees do not remain in a position for more than a short amount of time before they leave, thus requiring the position to be filled frequently. Likened to a revolving door in front of a building where people can come and go at the same time. Primarily heard in US. Because public sector jobs typically cannot pay as much as private sector jobs, many positions become revolving doors.
See also: door, revolve
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

the revolving door

1. If you talk about the revolving door of an organization, you mean that the people working in it do not stay there for very long. The revolving door at Wests has only just stopped spinning. A huge turnover of players is usually not the ideal basis for success. For the next 25 years, the company had a revolving door of executives. Note: You can also use revolving-door before a noun. High spending by the country's revolving-door governments swelled the public sector debt.
2. If you talk about the revolving door between two organizations, you mean that people often move from one to the other, and sometimes back again. Mr Smith also spoke of the revolving door for senior civil servants getting jobs in industry connected with their former department. No fewer than 25 aldermen have been convicted of corruption since 1973. In fact, the revolving door between City Hall and jail accounts in part for the Mayor's current political influence.
3. You can use the revolving door to refer to a situation where solutions to problems only last for a short time, and then the same problems occur again. These kids are caught in the revolving door of the justice system, ending up back on the streets after serving time, faced with their old life. Note: You can also use revolving-door before a noun. This is the revolving-door syndrome: no home, no job, no money; hence crime, increasing isolation from society, imprisonment; hence no home on release, and back again to prison.
See also: door, revolve
Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed.
See also:
  • revolving door
  • elevate
  • elevate (someone or something) to (something)
  • elevate to
  • elevated
  • have (one's) foot on (someone's) neck
  • at the top of the heap
  • a heartbeat away
  • a heartbeat from
  • heartbeat (away) from being (something)
References in periodicals archive
It said: "Retention rates must be high if the New Deal is to avoid becoming the revolving door familiar on so many previous schemes."
NEW DEAL JOBS FEAR
The report recommends specific measures to strengthen, simplify and clarify ethics laws, as well as to increase transparency for the public to be aware of and monitor the revolving door phenomenon and its effects.
Brass Parachutes: Defense Contractors' Capture of Pentagon Officials Through the Revolving Door, by the Project on Government Oversight
Labour's Shadow Cabinet Office Minister Jon Trickett is heavily critical of Nick Clegg who is said to be set to earn up to PS4million at Facebook, stating: "Labour is committed to slamming shut the revolving door between politics and big business, which has corroded public trust in politics."
Thumbs down for Clegg's job; YOUR VOICE
"The revolving door -- the pattern of people going from industry to agency, back to industry -- that will be closed in the Obama White House," Obama said on the campaign trail in 2007.
Obama's Failed Campaign Promises
"I want to stop the revolving door. If they keep the revolving door going, somewhere, someone is going to have to say 'stop this'.
Job's tougher than I thought admits Moyes
"I want to stop the revolving door. "First and foremost, I don't always decide who stops the revolving door.
I want the job as much as I did when I first came here... ...but I won't say it will be an easy task to stop revolving door at Cats; THE PREVIEW: Sunderland v West Brom
Transparency is key to dispelling the myth that the revolving door is a conduit through which illegal and unethical activities flow.
Yes, no, maybe so: what's wrong with becoming a lobbyist after leaving the legislature?
The revolving door took 45 weeks to design, and boasts a rotating speed of 0.7m per second.
UAE: 8.8t door installed at The Address Boulevard
The revolving door between the government and the private sector has long been presumed to lead to the capture of regulators by industry interests.
The revolving door
It was unexpected, and I was already discombobulated by my previous failure to leave the revolving door, and, basically, the speed made me miss my exit.
In a spin over a revolving door mishap; GARY BAINBRIDGE ... WORRYING ABOUT THE SMALL STUFF @Gary_Bainbridge
While it concluded that most regulators acted with all expected integrity, it noted that there have been "instances in which former SEC employees appear to have exerted undue influence on current commission staff, or in which the temptations of traveling through the revolving door appear to have weakened SEC regulatory and enforcement actions."
SEC revolving door may improve regulatory enforcement
Elizabeth, who has suffered from multiple sclerosis for 40 years, is demanding pounds 50,000 damages from Asda, who have since replaced the revolving door at the Perth store.
GRAN SUES ASDA OVER SPILL; Pensioner goes to court after being hurt in door MS sufferer claims pounds 50k EXCLUSIVE
"There was nobody around to open it, so I attempted to use the round door, I didn't see the glass panel before the revolving door, and banged my head on the glass by my eye and was bleeding.
Injured man demands disabled access action
but two poachers caught in the same revolving door can lead to a strange phenomenon: poacher standoff The revolving door stops and they're both stuck there, looking at each other through the glass.
Safety poachers