A horseshave is an unecessary project that is somewhat tedious, serves no real purpose except for face time, and is assigned to you by your boss. You don't try to get out of it, though, because it's fairly easy and it's overtime so you get paid extra for it. The word may have originated among former stablehands in Connecticut, the North Shore of Long Island, and Upstate New York, who when they had little to do were told by their bosses, "you can always go shave the horses."
Supervisor: "Sorry about all the 'horseshaves' I'm assigning this week--the Suits up in Albany are really on my case to make everyone look extra busy before the semiannual audit. At least you're getting paid extra."
Worker: "It's Ok, but it's hard for me to understand how the suits are going to be impressed by the fact that we've made four-color pie charts to document how many people here are using the decaf from the department vending machine."
Worker: "It's Ok, but it's hard for me to understand how the suits are going to be impressed by the fact that we've made four-color pie charts to document how many people here are using the decaf from the department vending machine."
by Original JB November 16, 2006