kick upstairs

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Verb

kick upstairs (third-person singular simple present kicks upstairs, present participle kicking upstairs, simple past and past participle kicked upstairs)

1. (transitive, idiomatic) To promote (an employee considered troublesome) to a position of lesser influence, but of apparently higher status.
   • 2012, The Economist, Sep 29th 2012 issue, Special Report, India: Aim Higher

     Faced with slowing foreign investment and a revenue squeeze, Pranab Mukherjee, until recently the finance minister, bizarrely attacked foreign investors, such as Vodafone, and retrospectively tried to rewrite tax rules. That spread uncertainty. Fortunately in July he was booted upstairs to become president.

   Synonym: boot upstairs

Related terms

• kick up

Translations

to promote a troublesome employee to a position of lesser influence

• Dutch: wegpromoveren (nl)

See also

• fail upwards