When your customer is the government, indirectly, by way of a fixed-fee contract, the actual impact of your quality is often hard to see. In the typical model,

When your customer is the government, indirectly, by way of a fixed-fee contract, the actual impact of your quality is often hard to see. In the typical model, a manager's highest priority is to reduce indirect charges and make sure as much as possible is charged to a contract. Now I'm not saying anyone is out to defraud, or charge time inappropriately, or etc. But what makes the company money is time it can charge to the gov't. Therefore if they see you spending half your time goofing off, but still getting more done - from their point of view, their legal obligation is to make sure they are charging correctly. I cannot imagine trying to justify charging half of your time indirectly, with the caveat that "hey, I'm getting even more done". Financially that would be a disaster for them. The only way for it to work out would be to bid double for contracts, which, given how bidding works... doesn't work.