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Reader question: Please explain “kicked upstairs”, as in: “George Casey, after failing in Iraq in 2006, was kicked upstairs to be Army chief of staff.” My comments: When one does something wrong, makes silly mistakes or, as in Casey’s case, fails to perform a duty and then is “kicked upstairs”, one, well, wants to know where exactly “upstairs” is. If your house has two floors, then upstairs is the second floor, or the upper floor. You go up there by climbing a flight stairs, hence the word upstairs – towards the upper floor, using the stairs. Very often in an organization, management (managers/officials) occupies the space upstairs while ordinary workers work downstairs, where the dirty work (day-to-day humdrum jobs) is done. Check your own office to see if this is true, that the upper floors are occupied by the higher ranking officials. Anyways, when people get promoted from a frontline job to a managerial position, they’re often said to be moving upstairs. But to be “kicked” there? Footballers kick a ball around for fun, and the very good pros are paid a lot of money for it, too. But for a man to be “kicked”? Ugh! Not a good feeling. You bet. To be kicked upstairs, hence, entails a mixed feeling – on the one hand, one is being promoted to a higher position; on the other hand, one has to endure the pain of being “kicked”. | 
