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I saw this expression in the computer game Viscera Cleanup Detail: Santa's Rampage on a time clock:

Attention: Do not put gum on or around the device. Any and all perpetrators will be bumped up for reassessment.

And in the dictionary (Macmillan), I've found only positive meanings for bump up:

  1. to increase something

  2. to move someone to a better position or job

But this meaning here seems to be negative.

I understand reassessment simply as assessing again. The developers are from South Africa.

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  • Needs context, but I would guess that in the game-universe, there is some sort of draconian discipline system. "Reassessment" could be many thing - maybe there are good jobs and there are terrible jobs, and being "reassessed" means they do an "evaluation" of your capacities and decide you are better suited for picking coffee beans out of civet dung for slave wages. Being "bumped up" may mean that your personnel file will be brought to the attention of HR/the bosses/someone else who can make assignment decisions. All this conjecture really needs the context of the video-game universe.
    – Adam
    Commented Dec 22, 2014 at 19:09
  • @Adam I've added a link to the description of the game. Maybe this will help.
    – user12257
    Commented Dec 22, 2014 at 20:14

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I would read it as:

"Bumped up" is being used in the sense of "moved ahead in line". "Reassessment" from context would be some kind of punishment, which doesn't really match the definition of the word, which suggests that it is meant as ironic humor on the tendency in corporate lingo to use neutral sounding names for bad things to make them seem less bad. For example, "not approved" instead of "rejected". Depending on overall context, "reassessment" could mean anything from being fired to being used to feed the sharks in the death trap.

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  • Well said. user12257 - this is the idea I was getting at, expressed more eloquently.
    – Adam
    Commented Dec 22, 2014 at 21:16

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