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The contrasting sentiment is "the squeaky wheel gets the oil". That is, the employee who is the most vocal will get the most attention and advantages.
by Veen 3y ago
The contrasting sentiment is "the squeaky wheel gets the oil". That is, the employee who is the most vocal will get the most attention and advantages.
- giraffe_lady 3y agoYeah the real question is are you more like a wheel or more like a horse? Neither analogy is perfect but....
- bluefirebrand 3y agoBut the wheel still never gets to drive the car.
- tuyiown 3y agoThat's true regardless if the wheel squeaks or not. <insert won't get promoted to wheel drive pun here>
- dimitrios1 3y agobut the oil is to get the wheel's performance back in order. Oil isn't a reward in this metaphor.
- pauldenton 3y agoI thought oil was money in this metaphor.
- digging 3y agoIt's not a very precise metaphor because there is no way for us to say if a wheel prefers to be oiled or dry.
- anigbrowl 3y agoI think you're gravely mistaken about that. I have absolutely heard people quoting this to justify demands of rewards, whether monetary or status; an even pithier version is 'if you don't ask, you don't get.'
- Lio 3y agoI once worked with someone who got both of us a pay rise by vocally complaining to a senior manager. He specifically used the "Squeaky wheel gets the oil" metaphor to describe what he'd done and why it worked. The "oil" is money.
- mcpackieh 3y ago> squeaky wheel Somebody who makes trouble and gets noticed for it. > gets the oil Is subjected to 'corrective measures.' It's another way of saying the nail that sticks out gets hammered down.
- esafak 3y agoNo, it's not. It means if you make your case yourself instead of waiting to be noticed, you are more likely to be rewarded.
- abofh 3y agoGrease isn't necessarily a reward, just something to make it quiet. It's been reinterpreted for sure, but wheels aren't bothered by them making noise, why would they care about grease?