Laws of the bungle

Just because people get paid at work doesn’t mean they always behave like professionals. Few people are on their best behavior 24/7, and even the most upstanding employees have their moments — so chances are that sooner or later you’re going to screw up royally at the office.

But instead of jumping out a window when you get caught bad-mouthing a co-worker or you whiff like Curtis Granderson during your PowerPoint presentation, there are ways to get yourself through a bad situation without suffering too much damage.

In fact, some awkward moments may be golden opportunities in disguise.

To get the lowdown on crawling out from under a rock at work — and if possible, doing a judo-flip to turn it to your advantage — we polled a panel of career gurus and etiquette experts on how to handle six difficult hypothetical scenarios, ranging from an e-mail blunder to a pervy boss.

The key to everything is to man up.

“Take responsibility, you idiot! People will forgive you if you do,” says Peter Post, director of the Emily Post Institute and author of “The Etiquette Advantage in Business.” “When people don’t take responsibility, that’s when they get into trouble.”

With that in mind, here’s how Post and our other experts would confront these workplace nightmares. You might want to keep their advice on hand for reference — ideally you won’t need it, but you never know.

THE PROBLEM

You’re in the break room chatting about the NFL playoffs when you’re suddenly reminded that Joe in the corner office has a salacious secret. Joe’s not around, so time to share! Once you’ve finished, you turn to see Joe glaring at you.

What to do

Post: You’ve got to recognize that you’ve just stepped over the line and apologize to that person immediately. Let them know that you know what you had to say was unacceptable and ask them for their forgiveness.

Lindsey Pollak, author of “Getting From College to Career”: In high school, they used to call that “pulling a Lindsey.” So I’m quite familiar with this scenario. In that case you go immediately to the person and say, “You know what? I was gossiping. That was really wrong. I’m sorry. It won’t happen again.”

Can it be turned to your advantage?

Post: That involves two things — how you try to rebuild the relationship with that individual and how you approach the whole issue of gossip in the workplace — your recognition that it causes problems and you’re not willing to participate in it any further.

Pollak: You use it as a lesson and stop gossiping.