From Slashdot:

[Laurence Horn]

On Apr 9, 2012, at 4:21 AM, Wilson Gray wrote:

> "Paper products maker Kimberly-Clark _drove the morale of its
> IT-infrastructure group into the ground_, after massive firings and
> outsourcings."
>
> Can you really say that? I've always interpreted "run ... into the
> ground" as meaning "to do more than is needed or wanted, to carry to
> an extreme."
>
> Youneverknow.
>
> Oh, wait! This is "drive," not "run." That's all right, then.
>
Maybe it is in fact a blend of the positive (or at least neutral) "drive into the ground" (to keep driving a car until it can't drive another mile, rather than either trading it in for a healthier one or putting money into fixing it) + the negative "run into the ground" (as evidently practiced at Kimberly-Clark, no doubt because we all unconscionably refer to tissues as "Kleenex", helping turn K-C into a victim genericide).

LH

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