company man

American  

noun

1. an employee whose allegiance to his employer comes before personal beliefs or loyalty to fellow workers.

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company man British  

noun

1. an employee who puts allegiance to the company for which he works above personal opinion or friendship

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company man Idioms  

1. A male worker more loyal to management than to his fellow workers; also, one who informs on fellow employees. For example, He'll never join in a strike; he's a company man. Dating from the 1920s, a period of considerable labor unrest, this term uses company in the sense of “a business concern” and was often applied as a criticism by supporters of labor unions.

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Etymology

Origin of company man

First recorded in 1920–25

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

company man

Instead, he seemed a good, flustered company man anxiously determined to be normal—like Dick Van Dyke, perhaps, or Bob Newhart—while remaining very funny indeed.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 15, 2026

Park says he started developing the project as an American film about 20 years ago, so he didn’t think of casting Lee as the middle-age company man at its center.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 18, 2025

With so much time spent clawing at his imagined future, Man-su loses sight of the company man title from his past.

From Salon ● Oct. 7, 2025

He's described as a "company man - an institutional champion who's privately embraced the draconian tactics of an antiquated and often vicious institution".

From BBC ● Nov. 28, 2023

Dad, a company man through and through, had no choice but to comply with Mr. Van Dyke’s orders.

From "October Sky" by Homer Hickam