> Can you imagine if the insurance company started arguing with the repair shop, asking them—no—telling them that they would only pay the $18,000 and not the additional $20,000 because that was the original estimate?

Well yeah, because there's not an inherent power imbalance like there is in employment.

Part of this imbalance results in the ability for managers to employ Taylorization upon their directs. The majority of the time Taylorization hinders workers but management loves it because they can have more control in outcomes. What ends up happening though, is that an shadow work plan ends up getting established that management has less control over unless they want to drive out top talent by employing technocratic solutions to social problems.

Also, insurance does do stuff like that.