Years ago, I found myself in a politically difficult situation at work. After a change of department managers, it became clear the new shirt was looking for an excuse to get rid of me.
I needed to keep the job, so I set out to not give him an excuse. I came in early, stayed late, took short lunch breaks, and generally made sure that anytime he walked into my repair lab, I had my head down and was working on something.
My co-workers teased me about "playing possum", and from there it just stuck...
By the way, that company eventually went tits-up, but I kept my job until the 5th round of layoffs
