What Can You Do With a 'Skeleton Crew'?
When was the last time you had to do a lot of work with a very small team? A "skeleton crew" is the smallest number of workers a business needs to do its job. Just as your body couldn't stand up without its skeleton, a business can't function without at least a "skeleton crew."
For example, if you work at a store and most of your coworkers decide to take a few days off for a public holiday, your boss might say, "We're going to be working with a skeleton crew over the next couple of days.
If you have been working very hard at something, you can say that you have been "working your fingers to the bone." The idea is that you have worked so hard that the skin is coming off your fingers.
If you and the remaining staff members are working hard, but there's always still more work to do at the store, you might say to your boss, "We're working our fingers to the bone, but you go home at 5 every day. It's not fair!"
When someone says something that hurts you, but is also true or almost true, you can say it is "close to the bone."
So if your boss starts working late every day, your coworker might say to you, "I don't know what you said to the boss, but it must have been close to the bone! I've never seen him work so hard!"
