do the donkey work
To do difficult and tedious work. Primarily heard in UK. Oh, don't worry, we can get our interns to do the donkey work for us.
do the donkey work
BRITISHIf you do the donkey work, you do the most physically tiring or boring parts of a job or piece of work. The bottom lot were the mechanics who did the sheer physical donkey work. We've been very fortunate getting a succession of secretaries who've managed to do the donkey work.