Contractor Kabuki

I recently read Where'd You Go, Bernadette, by Maria Semple (strongly recommend, by the way), and came across this gem about "contractor Kabuki":

...it dawned on me that Ellen Idelson was a contractor. She was performing contractor Kabuki. It's a ritual in which (a) the contractor explains in great detail the impossibility of the job you've done, (b) you demonstrate extreme remorse for even suggesting such a thing by withdrawing your request, and (c) he tells you he's found a way to do it, so (d) you owe him one for doing what he was hired to do in the first place.

We played our roles expertly, Ellen ticking off the difficulties, me abjectly apologizing for such an irrational and thoughtless request. I nodded gravely and retired to my sanding chores. Five hours later, Ellen whistled me into her office. “Lucky for you,” she said...

It's a good reminder that my sense of American business etiquette is not as direct as I'd like to think.