Why do you work late at night with oil? It means one is working hard. In the context of the scenario, it means he worked a lot, often late into the night, to get to his present position. Observation: It is meant as both a compliment, and a comment on the person’s character as a hard-working individual.

What is used to torch midnight? What alternatives are there that are used daily? In the past tense the phrase To keep one’s nose shut would work for that context: He really kept his nose shut to get where he is today. Another, more modern, and colloquial expression is to pull an all nighter, which is mostly used by high school and college students in the context of studying for exams, as in: I pulled an all nighter for that test!

A long night at the office can cause us to have problems as we wait for the last moment. (Why is this so frustrating) I think he really pulled a lot of all nighter to get to where he is, but when used, it would not be a compliment.