While at lunch in the US Embassy, Moscow, I was talking to a guy who's job is basically to fix the inevitable diplomatic and logistical problems that occur during normal operations. He was mentioning how, if everything is going right, his superiors never hear from him. He only has to act when something hits the fan.

I hate calling [my boss] up, because he now associates my name with disasters. The only time he hears from me is when some calamity is in progress. They have problems dissociating the problem and the problem solvers.

'Yes, sir, if I could just direct your attention to the punch bowl... you'll see there's a turd floating in there... and I put it there.'

That's what they're thinking whenever I call them.