We have a new management trainee in our department – fresh from university. He’s full of enthusiasm, which is great, but I think he forgets that we have been doing this work for years and gathered a lot of valuable experience in that time. When he tried to tell me again last week how I should be doing my job I had to remind him not to teach his grandmother to suck eggs (Da will das Ei wieder klüger sein als die Henne!)
„Egg sucking“ is a way of removing the insides of an egg while leaving the shell in one piece. Two small holes are made on the ends of the egg, and the contents sucked out. The shell can then be painted or used for other decorative purposes without it becoming rotten and smelling bad. This is a skill most grandmothers are experts in, so there is no need to teach them – the expression is used to mean you shouldn’t give advice to someone who knows more than you on the topic.