Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(orig. Aus.) working in an office.

1937		V.S. Pritchett Dead Man Leading 58: He had been snubbed and dropped in his time by what he called ‘the shiny-arsed clerks’ in the banks.
1968		V.S. Pritchett Cab at the Door 188: The men in the warehouse despised the ‘shiny-arsed clerks with their four ten a week’.
1977		Guardian 17 Nov. 10/2: The worst cuirse reserved for intellectual softies, civil servants and capitalists — is ‘shiny-arsed’.
1978		B. Rosser This is Palm Island 51: Some shiny arsed chair jockey down in the city [...] is administering and enforcing the Queensland Aboriginal Act [AND].
1989		Materials Handling News 19: The tone of humility had already been set by previous (production based) speakers who had employed a handy Americanism the SAB (shiny arsed bookeeper).
1993		I. Welsh Trainspotting 229: Mostly fucking shiny-arsed clerks or commission–based insurance salesmen.
2004		Off Duty Ltd. (UK police) 6 Jan. 🌐 Or if above sounds like too much hard work. Get into as many shiny arse departments as possible and brown nose your way up.
2008		B. Boreham Savage Dreamng 91: He smiled ruefully reflecting that they had been made for the backsides of combat troops not for the comfort of shiny arsed public servants like him.
2009		T. Black Gutted 121: He’s a cheesy little shiny-arsed bastard.