“Pushing the envelope.” There must be some kind of joke I can make based on physical envelopes….
I wonder for how many people is the expression still closely connected to the idea / image of surrounding a volume in an abstract parameter-space.
Presumably it is a play on meanings. “Pushing the envelope” in, for instance, Right Stuff-style air testing speech means test pilots trying out the aircraft at various extremes of speed, acceleration, altitude, attitude, G-force, ascent and descent rates and whathaveyou to establish and tweak the outer edges of safe performance, so that standard non-test pilots can operate safely well within limits so as to avoid tearing through the envelope and crashing the plane.
Some managerial types in office environments like to use vivid metaphorical and idiomatic phrases like this from more active pursuits (the military, sports, orienteering, spaceflight) to make life seem more exciting. In this particular office environment the management seems rather literal-minded and has, in reality, been “pushing” (ie advocating and indeed insisting on) the use of paper envelopes for sending physical letters and junk mail and reply-paid postage, instead of succumbing to pressure from modern times to use e-means.
To give the metaphor its due, in full it reads “pushing the outside of the envelope.” And the trick is, not to punch any holes in it.
It could be very literal in that they are pushing as many papers as they can into a standard business-sized envelope, resulting in a very overweight envelope that has not only a lot of ounces in it but also a surcharge for being excessively thick.
Comics I Don't Understand 
“Pushing the envelope.” There must be some kind of joke I can make based on physical envelopes….
I wonder for how many people is the expression still closely connected to the idea / image of surrounding a volume in an abstract parameter-space.
Presumably it is a play on meanings. “Pushing the envelope” in, for instance, Right Stuff-style air testing speech means test pilots trying out the aircraft at various extremes of speed, acceleration, altitude, attitude, G-force, ascent and descent rates and whathaveyou to establish and tweak the outer edges of safe performance, so that standard non-test pilots can operate safely well within limits so as to avoid tearing through the envelope and crashing the plane.
Some managerial types in office environments like to use vivid metaphorical and idiomatic phrases like this from more active pursuits (the military, sports, orienteering, spaceflight) to make life seem more exciting. In this particular office environment the management seems rather literal-minded and has, in reality, been “pushing” (ie advocating and indeed insisting on) the use of paper envelopes for sending physical letters and junk mail and reply-paid postage, instead of succumbing to pressure from modern times to use e-means.
To give the metaphor its due, in full it reads “pushing the outside of the envelope.” And the trick is, not to punch any holes in it.
It could be very literal in that they are pushing as many papers as they can into a standard business-sized envelope, resulting in a very overweight envelope that has not only a lot of ounces in it but also a surcharge for being excessively thick.