In my experience, it all depends on who's picking up the tab. I assume you were hired as a consultant for a project. In that case, their client was paying, so t

In my experience, it all depends on who's picking up the tab. I assume you were hired as a consultant for a project. In that case, their client was paying, so there wasn't a reason to be cheap. (And, of course, Microsoft is a huge organization; even if some policies are standardized, the way they are implemented can still vary wildly.)