As a trainee engineer in 1976, I remember changing a toilet roll when on secondment to our Sheffield factory and being seriously worried that someone might find out and accuse me of doing somebody else's job. My predecessor had almost caused a strike by helping to sweep up some rubbish. The union's grip was total, and the atmosphere was poisonous   I can tell you that certain firms currently insist their operatives extract the maximum cash from any call out they attend. They are reviewed each month and compared.They face the axe if they fall behind...by maximum, read the need  for several visits by different operatives and 'inventing' faults and problems. They are checked for outside work and face dismissal even if the work was generated outside their business. One set are noted as 'close down charlies' because of their approach to getting maximum cash by a exploiting some aspects of their area of work. Is that any different or toxic?

Salford - are you able to quantify that statement with anything - a link perhaps? It's just that we run our own business and have friends who own their own (different) businesses, and none of us have not come across this maxim. (I know you don't like people giving examples of their own lives for things like this, but it is sometimes useful as a point of reference, and also to know that not everyone operates in the same unscrupulous way).

Maybe it is just a difference in areas, where you live, or perhaps the type of business you are in. I know it happens sometimes when firms are tendered by an organisation such as the NHS, for example - they all put in a high bid, and the the NHS chooses the lowest, but they still end up paying more than a private client would.