I always understood this to be taken literally. My boarding school, admittedly a bit old fashioned, had semi-separated buildings for rest rooms called “The Towers” that were connected by walkways to the main building, the stated reason being that people should defecate away from their main sleeping quarters and eating spaces for the prevention of disease. I’ve also known of people refusing to use indoor plumbed bathrooms, and insisting on using an outhouse, for the same reason, though this was pretty much long ago and older people. I did grow up in a house with an outhouse but the house had recently been plumbed and the outhouse was no longer used.
But last night I heard that it meant “don’t have a romantic relationship where you work”. Is that specifically the case?
Or, perhaps, was it originally meant literally and did it then broaden to mean things that might come back to hurt you should be done away from the main areas of your life?
With Italians, at any rate, it means you do not do self-destructive things. It’s considered a severe character flaw and pathetic. For example, all the bathrooms in this school have been redone and are very nice. In fact, the bathrooms on the sixth grade wing are almost palatial in nature. Yet, we had to track down a few deviant individuals who thought it was “cool” to vandalize the boys bathroom so that it had to be closed for 3 days for repairs. So, no one could use them. That’s an example of, “shitting where you eat”.
P.S. I’ve been in education since I graduated college, and it’s always the boys bathrooms where hideous things happen. Not making any claims, just sayin’.
No idea about the origin of the expression or what it meant originally. I’ve heard it used as described by the OP (sexual relations among coworkers being unwise), and I’ve always thought it’s not a very good fit. I mean, shitting is one thing and sexual relations are another, unless shit is being used here metaphorically in the sense of making a mistake (fucking something up). The “where you eat” part of the expression works a little better, as a job provides you with money to buy food.
The expression might have come to English from another language. The concept is simple enough, and the version in Spanish has better metaphors that rhyme: donde tengas la olla no metas la polla=wherever you have your cooking pot, don’t stick your dick in there.
Don’t make any kind of a mess where you live. For example, if you’re going to have a wild party-don’t do it in your hometown where everyone knows you and won’t forget it.
Generally, yes, it does mean don’t date at work. More generally it does tend to mean not to engage in activities that combine two aspects of your life that should be more compartmentalized, as it can be counterproductive or create conflicts of interest. i.e. creating a literal or figurative “mess” where you then need to clean up after it.
A similar statement is “don’t get high off your own [drug] supply.”
An opposite statement is “eating your own dog food”, which usually is meant in the context of a business using it’s own products or services in the legitimate running of it’s business. For example, a company that sells accounting software using their own product for their accounting needs.
I’d always heard it as more of a broader “put your money where your mouth is” kind of sense, combined with a willingness to suffer any consequences of doing so.
So an accounting software company using its own software to do its own accounting would be a great example of that- you’re putting your money where your mouth is, and if there are problems/flaws, you’ll find and suffer them just like your customers would.
It’s a very general statement. It could be taken with very close to its literal meaning – for instance, ‘don’t let fecal matter get into your water supply’, or ‘don’t pollute your farm fields’. It could be taken to mean ‘don’t have bad sexual relationships where you work’ or, more generally, ‘don’t screw over (in either the metaphorical or one of the literal senses of ‘screw’) people you’re going to have to work with.’ Or ‘if you’ve got to run scams, don’t run them on your neighbors or family members.’ Or ‘don’t be nasty to the person who’s providing your food.’
I don’t think that’s a better phrasing; because many people have much of their cooking done by their spouse.
Plus, if the easy access to porn has shown us anything it is that there is literally nothing that can’t be enjoyed as a fetish. Pot/cock interfaces included.
Something like “if you’re going to do stupid/naughty things that could have damaging consequences, don’t do them at work / close to home”
Yes, this is a good summary of the scope of meaning.
A related expression is “what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas”. If people have been smart enough to not shit where they eat, they should then also be smart enough to not talk about the remote shitting when they get home.
