Career-killing faux pas used simply to involve getting rat-faced at office parties or insulting the boss’s spouse, but US pundits have identified a new way to torpedo your promotion hopes - by getting it wrong at the gym.

In-house exercise facilities have become an increasingly popular corporate perk, not least because employers hope that office gyms will keep staff out of the pub, reduce their sickness rates and help workers to perk up their brains and morale.

But a Washington Post investigation says that there are more ways to slip up in the office gym than merely tripping over your towel. For a start, there is the simple embarrassment of being seen sweating and grunting in front of colleagues whom you normally take great efforts to impress with your conference-room charm.

This “same people, different boundaries” scenario is the classic stuff of sit-com humour. Pitfalls abound. Thus, the sensible advice on gym apparel is to stick to wearing baggy sweat-stuff rather than parading around in skin-tight Spandex that shows off lumps and bumps that colleagues would rather stayed hidden.

And how should you greet colleagues who work at different levels in the hierarchy? It might not, for example, be wise to tackle a manager about your performance appraisal when he or she is visibly failing to negotiate a cross-trainer. Standard gym etiquette applies, such as putting towels on machines to absorb sweat, and not hogging equipment. But for the Machiavelli in us, traditional gym games can also be employed. For example, time your visits so that you are working out next to older, less fit, colleagues. You’ll leave feeling dynamic, while they will be left wondering.

And when you finish with a weight-training machine, ratchet up the resistance level so that the next person to use it instantly feels inadequate. Who says that games should be kept to the boardroom?

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