button pusher

Meanings

1. Someone who pushes someone else's buttons: someone who goads, annoys, provokes, etc.
2. A low-skilled or unskilled worker: someone from whom one can expect little or nothing more than rote pushing of buttons (not showing, for example, critical thinking, insight, or leadership).

Etymology

In the provoker sense, by a metaphor in which the recipient's emotions can be manipulated on command as if prompted by literal control buttons. Thus also tangentially comparable with a puppet master who is pulling the strings to manipulate puppets.