Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(US) a clerk.

1953		H. Boyle Associated Press 19 May n.p.: Let some desk jockey in the home office envy you [W&F].
1959		‘Ed McBain’ Killer’s Wedge (1981) 48: He was a trained policeman who happened to be a desk jockey.
1968		K. Cooper Aerobics 38: This category catches all the do-nothings, the desk jockeys, the TV watchers, the over-eaters, the over-smokers.
1977		‘John le Carré’ Honourable Schoolboy 58: He invited three of the least bending Whitehall desk-jockeys.
1996		(con. 1948) G. Pelecanos Big Blowdown (1999) 112: You got me confused with that old desk jockey, pally.
2011		J.J. DeCeglie Drawing Dead [ebook] The desk jockey didn’t even look up from his newspaper.

(US black/Harlem) a typewriter.

1944

‘Jiver’s Bible’ in D. Burley Orig. Hbk of Harlem Jive.

a non-combatant.

1934

(con. WWI) G. Bruce ‘The Flaming Arrow’ in Goodstone Pulps (1970) 50/2: The damned Intelligence Department – those desk polishers who strutted around in the fancy uniforms.