Bite the hand that feeds you means to harm or criticize someone who helps or supports you.
The literal picture makes the phrase memorable: a helpful hand offers food while a character bites that same hand. The workplace conversation shows the social meaning. One worker is considering a public review of a former manager who paid for training and recommended the worker for a job. A public attack could seem ungrateful.
English speakers often use this idiom as a warning: "Be careful about attacking a person or organization that supports you." The phrase can sound judgmental, so people use it carefully when discussing someone else's choice.
Try it: "Our sponsor helped fund the event, so let's solve the problem privately. We don't want to bite the hand that feeds us."
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