I have this thing I do at work when I fuck up. I consider myself a pretty smart guy, but whenever something goes really wrong and I'm the cause I stand up and say 'oh! well you see! that happened because I'm stupid! So, you know, you really can't blame me for that. Because I'm stupid.'

And it works. It works really well. People expect other people to be stupid, so I guess I'd be pretty stupid if I didn't play up to that. Saying 'I'm thick' is a lot easier on the boss than me going 'Well you know, that customer was kind of a dick and it was getting to the end of the night and it was my last job and what the hell are they calling up this time of night anyway so I just sorta didn't do it.'

That'd get me fired so fast. I've seen it happen. But me going 'duh I'm sorry I hit wrong button and computer stopped worky so check out the food spills on my tshirt.' That gets me another chance every time.