Backroom boy British noun phrase informal
Someone who plays an important or crucial role in an organization without public awareness.
We should pay more appreciation to the backroom boys for all the work they've done.
Thanks to the backroom boys, the company was saved from bankruptcy.
A thing is known about by only a few people and kept hidden from others because it makes somebody feel ashamed.
To be secretly working together
To secretly punish or rebuke someone for doing something.
Used to indicate the way someone does or something happens is secretive and quick
Used to talk about someone without mentioning their name.
The phrase originally referred to the scientists, researchers, and technicians working anonymously behind the scenes in the UK during World War II. It appeared in a speech by Lord Beaverbrook in March 1941:
"Now who is responsible for this work of development on which so much depends? To whom must the praise be given? To the boys in the back rooms. They do not sit in the limelight. But they are the men who do all the work. Many of them are Civil Servants."