# "At the work bin" -- was this a common idiom? What's it's origin? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 26, 2020, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-the-work-bin-was-this-a-common-idiom-whats-its-origin/852609 "2020-04-26T13:49:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2020, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-the-work-bin-was-this-a-common-idiom-whats-its-origin/852609/1 "2020-04-26T13:49:52Z")
I was watching the 2017 documentary “My Generation” featuring Michael Caine, assisted by several other '60s-era celebrities, like Paul McCartney, Marianne Faithfull, Twiggy, Donovan, etc. > **[My Generation (2017 film)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Generation_(2017_film))** > > My Generation is a 2017 documentary film directed by David Batty and presented by Sir Michael Caine. It follows the cultural revolution that occurred in 1960s England and interviews various icons and key figures such as David Bailey, Roger Daltrey, Marianne Faithfull, Paul McCartney, Mary Quant and Twiggy. The film contains an abundance of archive footage and its soundtrack contains the 1965 song of the same name by The Who. > > This article about a British documentary film is a stub. You can he... It’s actually really nicely done and gives me a kind of nostalgia for an era long before my time. The music and the styles are quite excellent. Anyway, near the beginning, Caine is talking about how in the post-war period, he and other working class Britons were ready to throw off the shackles of the class system, aided by a quality government-provided education and health care system. On Amazon Prime Video, at about 00:07:25, there’s a clip of an outrageously mustachioed gentlemen in a suit standing in front of a modernist backdrop who is lecturing about discipline. I can’t entirely tell whether this was sincere or satire, but he says this: > [@](#): > > Discipline is indispensable to a progressive and mature society. Given discipline in the home, at school, in college, and **at the work bin** , the foundations for happiness are well-established. It’s this phrase “at the work bin” I’m interested in. I’ve never heard it before. I assume it means something equivalent to “at the workplace.” Is anyone familiar with this phrase? Was it once commonly understood? Is it still used? What’s its origin? What is the metaphorical “bin” here? ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2020, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-the-work-bin-was-this-a-common-idiom-whats-its-origin/852609/2 "2020-04-27T14:18:00Z")
No one has any insight into this phrase? ---
**Author:** ![MoonMoon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moonmoon/32/2959_2.png) [@MoonMoon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MoonMoon)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2020, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-the-work-bin-was-this-a-common-idiom-whats-its-origin/852609/3 "2020-04-27T14:54:21Z")
“work bench” ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2020, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-the-work-bin-was-this-a-common-idiom-whats-its-origin/852609/4 "2020-04-27T15:42:30Z")
> [@MoonMoon](#): > > “work bench” So, you’re saying I misheard? That’s pretty likely, actually. Was “at the work bench” or “work bench” a common turn of phrase, used metaphorically to mean “in the workplace”? ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2020, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-the-work-bin-was-this-a-common-idiom-whats-its-origin/852609/5 "2020-04-27T15:46:29Z")
[Corrected link](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Generation_(2017_film)). Looks interesting. ---
**Author:** ![MoonMoon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moonmoon/32/2959_2.png) [@MoonMoon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MoonMoon)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2020, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-the-work-bin-was-this-a-common-idiom-whats-its-origin/852609/6 "2020-04-27T16:11:37Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > So, you’re saying I misheard? That’s pretty likely, actually. > > Was “at the work bench” or “work bench” a common turn of phrase, used metaphorically to mean “in the workplace”? Yes, he’s definitely saying “work bench,” as in “a place to make or repair things” aka a manual labor type job. ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2020, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-the-work-bin-was-this-a-common-idiom-whats-its-origin/852609/7 "2020-04-28T00:12:49Z")
Hmm, I’ve heard a similar expression from my co-workers in India. I’ll ask how it’s going (in text over chat), and pretty often the answer is “Not much, our bin just started.” I’ve always just assumed bin was slang for workday or something similar. In this case, there’s no accent since it’s in text. But there’s at least one group that seems to still refer to their work as their “bin”. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2020, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-the-work-bin-was-this-a-common-idiom-whats-its-origin/852609/8 "2020-04-28T01:02:12Z")
> [@scabpicker](#): > > Hmm, I’ve heard a similar expression from my co-workers in India. I’ll ask how it’s going (in text over chat), and pretty often the answer is “Not much, our bin just started.” I’ve always just assumed bin was slang for workday or something similar. > > In this case, there’s no accent since it’s in text. But there’s at least one group that seems to still refer to their work as their “bin”. What part of India are they from? If they’re Hindi or Bengali-speakers, I might guess that it’s meant to be “din,” meaning “day.” ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2020, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-the-work-bin-was-this-a-common-idiom-whats-its-origin/852609/9 "2020-04-28T01:35:31Z")
This is why I always have captioning on. ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2020, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-the-work-bin-was-this-a-common-idiom-whats-its-origin/852609/10 "2020-04-28T03:50:07Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > What part of India are they from? If they’re Hindi or Bengali-speakers, I might guess that it’s meant to be “din,” meaning “day.” Near Delhi, so fairly far north. I’m not certain of their native language. To clarify, I’m not hearing them say this. They are typing “Our bin just started” and I am reading it in chat. Din would be an odd typo to make repeatedly without correcting it, it seems. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2020, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-the-work-bin-was-this-a-common-idiom-whats-its-origin/852609/11 "2020-04-28T22:11:41Z")
> [@scabpicker](#): > > Near Delhi, so fairly far north. I’m not certain of their native language. > > To clarify, I’m not hearing them say this. They are typing “Our bin just started” and I am reading it in chat. Din would be an odd typo to make repeatedly without correcting it, it seems. M not getting anything on this from my Indian sources. Were it me, I’d just ask them what it means. I wish you would. I’m dying to know. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2020, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-the-work-bin-was-this-a-common-idiom-whats-its-origin/852609/12 "2020-04-28T22:47:03Z")
> [@MoonMoon](#): > > Yes, he’s definitely saying “work bench,” as in “a place to make or repair things” aka a manual labor type job. In my English, I would use the words “manual labor” to mean “physical work” rather than “working with their hands”. I guess I’d think of bench work as skilled or at worst semi-skilled labour. In context, I’d think the gentleman was appealing for pride in the workplace, and making an unconscious (but fully visible) class distinction between bench workers and manual laborers – who are aren’t expected to have any discipline. One of the guys I lived with in the 1980’s had recently worked as a gardener in London. He said that one of the points about working as a gardener in London was that there was no minimum standard of behavior required. You didn’t have to worry about social rules or getting it wrong. Because you could be lying dead drunk in a gutter in your own piss, and nobody would think the worse of you: you were a gardener. ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2020, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-the-work-bin-was-this-a-common-idiom-whats-its-origin/852609/13 "2020-04-29T04:54:21Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > M not getting anything on this from my Indian sources. > > Were it me, I’d just ask them what it means. I wish you would. I’m dying to know. Sure, I’ll ask. Watch, it’ll be lingo specific to the company that I’m not aware of. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2020, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-the-work-bin-was-this-a-common-idiom-whats-its-origin/852609/14 "2020-04-29T15:54:22Z")
I would think “work bench” signifies a _skilled_ trade: cabinetmaker, shoemaker, jeweler, etc. As opposed to some mutt on an assembly line, screwing caps onto toothpaste tubes. Come on, can’t you picture the array of fussy little tools hanging above that “work bench?” ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2020, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-the-work-bin-was-this-a-common-idiom-whats-its-origin/852609/15 "2020-04-29T23:03:23Z")
> [@scabpicker](#): > > Sure, I’ll ask. Watch, it’ll be lingo specific to the company that I’m not aware of. Annnnd, sure enough. It was lingo they picked up at work. They don’t know where it came from, either. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2020, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-the-work-bin-was-this-a-common-idiom-whats-its-origin/852609/16 "2020-04-29T23:13:32Z")
> [@scabpicker](#): > > Annnnd, sure enough. It was lingo they picked up at work. They don’t know where it came from, either. Figures. Maybe when they were assigning shifts, they dropped names into literal bins. Or something.