company man

noun

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

company man

noun

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of company man¹

First recorded in 1920–25

Idioms and Phrases

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.

Example Sentences

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.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

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

Read more on Salon

Henry, in tweed suits and suitably nebbishy glasses, feels more like a company man than his two colleagues.

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Unlike Scott, Tillman worked in corporate office roles prior to becoming an actor and landing his breakthrough role as company man Milchick.

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

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