In my experience, the calculus is more like "best for them, indifferent to you". If a business or personal goal can reasonably be solved by paying you more then

In my experience, the calculus is more like "best for them, indifferent to you". If a business or personal goal can reasonably be solved by paying you more then they don't mind. In fact there are even scenarios where you'd win even more than the other party, but they still cooperate if they gain 'enough'. It is the absolute difference created by the action for their position that matters. Meanwhile in an actual adversarial relationship the other party can be expected to take actions that harm their own position if it harms you more. In such a position it is the relative difference that matters, an enemy seeks to either lose less or win more than you. I'd argue that (except for the most pathological managers), jobs fall in the first category instead of in the second.