Feeding the monkey

[hhg...@gmail.com]

Hi native speakers, it's me again.

I may be too lazy but I can't find this expression on Google.
"Don't feed the monkey"

It is in a labour safety manual and the actual context is:

Not feeding the monkey
 Job observation data provide us to prevent incidents.
 Extreme or High Hazard At Risk observations provide immediate
opportunities to communicate issues

So what is "not feeding the monkey" here?

Thank you in advance

[Glenn Knickerbocker]

On 02/08/2011 06:03 AM, hhg...@gmail.com wrote:
> So what is "not feeding the monkey" here?

Usually the expression refers to maintaining an addiction (the "monkey
on your back"), but that doesn't make any sense in this context. It
must be referring instead to ignoring warning signs. It still doesn't
make much of sense to me. Is there any more context that might help
explain it?

¬R

[hhg...@gmail.com]

On Feb 8, 8:07 pm, Lewis <g.kr...@gmail.com.dontsendmecopies> wrote:
> In message <c-SdnZ7Gje3l9szQnZ2dnUVZ_oOdn...@bestweb.net>

> Feed the monkey generally means to do something that you know better
> than to do, usually because you can't help yourself, it does seem to
> come from the 'monkey on your back' addiction phrase, but feeding the
> monkey can be anything at all that you do to encourage or continue bad
> choices.
>
> YOU are the only person who can feed the monkey or not feed the monkey,
> as YOu are the only person making the choice about your own monkey.
>
> A: "Hey man, want to drive over to the Indian casino with us?"
>
> B: "I'd better not, I don't want to feed the monkey."
>
> B is declining to go, but is also acknowledging that going is a problem
> and that if he were to go, he would likely not be able to control
> himself.
>
> It can also be used ironically.
>
> A: "Aren't you taking the weekend off?"
> B: "Nah, wouldn't want to feed the monkey."
>
> Given no other information, the implication here is that taking time off
> from work would be something B might get used to, and so he has to keep
> working or else he might start enjoying life, resting, relaxing, and
> then where will it all end?
>
> B is complaining about being overworked without actually complaining,
> and is also showing that despite being overworked, he can't afford to
> take time off.
>
> --
> A dyslexic walks into a bra...

Thanks to both of you. So am I right if I understand "not feeding the
monkey" to mean something like "avoid trouble"?

[tony cooper]

I don't recognize it as a set phrase, but I would think that it means
something along the line of "avoid participating in something you know
could be trouble." Some trouble is unavoidable because you can't
anticipate that your action will cause a problem. This phrase seems
to refer to trouble that you can anticipate.

--
Tony Cooper - Orlando, Florida

[Prai Jei]

hhg...@gmail.com set the following eddies spiralling through the space-time
continuum:

Forget monkeys contrasted with organ-grinders, the image that first came to
mind, and about which I wrote a lot of waffle which I've now deleted.

The image I get now is a monkey in a zoo, where if you offer it some little
morsel of food out of a bag (e.g. a couple of peanuts) it will invariably
make a grab for the entire bag. "Feeding the monkey" is therefore a
reference to a highly dangerous situation where one is tempting fate.

That seems to click with the context more so that taking your complaint
right to the top instead of dealing with a subordinate.
--
ξ:) Proud to be curly

Interchange the alphabetic letter groups to reply

[Jerry Friedman]

New to me.

Is it possible that "Not feeding the monkey" is the name of a mistake
and the two following points are reasons not to make the mistake?

--
Jerry Friedman

[hhg...@gmail.com]

> Is it possible that "Not feeding the monkey" is the name of a mistake
> and the two following points are reasons not to make the mistake?
>

No way

[Eric Walker]

On Tue, 08 Feb 2011 03:03:10 -0800, hhg...@gmail.com wrote:

[...]

> So what is "not feeding the monkey" here?

At the zoo...

PLEASE DO NOT FEED THE MONKEYS

...because if you get close enough to do so, they may reach through the
cage bars and do you a severe mischief.

--
Cordially,
Eric Walker

[mb]

On Feb 8, 3:03 am, "hhg...@gmail.com" <hhg...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi native speakers, it's me again.

...

> "Don't feed the monkey"

...

> Not feeding the monkey
>      Job observation data provide us to prevent incidents.
>      Extreme or High Hazard At Risk observations provide immediate
> opportunities to communicate issues

I'm not a native speaker either, but so (definitely more so) is the
person who wrote these two bullet points. Looking at his grammar and
his liking for trendy-sounding grandiloquent blah, it would be a
miracle if that monkey-feeding business weren't the result of some
misunderstanding, metaphor-mixing or other confusion.

[Leslie Danks]

mb wrote:

Maybe the monkey wrote it.

Ob AUE: "... but _neither_ is the person who wrote ..."

--
Les
(BrE)

[John Holmes]

I don't think it has any obvious general meaning; could it instead
refer to some example or story that has been used earlier in the manual
or mentioned in a training course?

--
Regards
John
for mail: my initials plus a u e
at tpg dot com dot au

[hhg...@gmail.com]

>  I don't think it has any obvious general meaning; could it instead
> refer to some example or story that has been used earlier in the manual
> or mentioned in a training course?

Nothing like that is mentioned anywhere in the material

[mb]

On Feb 9, 1:28 am, Leslie Danks <leslie.da...@aon.at> wrote:
> mb wrote:

> > I'm not a native speaker either, but so (definitely more so) is the
> > person who wrote these two bullet points. Looking at his

...

> Maybe the monkey wrote it.
>
> Ob AUE: "... but _neither_ is the person who wrote ..."

Something there. This monkey got carried away by the comparison aspect
of it.