Supportive

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A stick of limp celery. A manner of speaking whereby someone in a position in authority indicates enough agreement for an initiative to proceed — while leaving a door unlatched through which he can escape and categorically deny approval later on, when the initiative turns out to be the moronic idea it will almost certainly is.

One can further equivocate by inclination - the implication being that “if gravity is allowed to do its work, one might eventually arrive at a position of agreement but one is not there yet, and who knows what disturbances in the space-time continuum might intervene to take one to a darker and more hostile place?”

So if your boss says “I am inclined to be supportive at this stage”, know that it is your, not her, posterior in the sling when the enormity of your folly makes itself apparent.

See also

• Celery, and limp celery
• I would be inclined to agree
• I am supportive in principle at this stage
• I have no objections
• The circle of escalation
• I could get comfortable