About a hundred years or go give or take, I was working on a crew as a millwright apprentice at a large oil refinery, overhauling a compressor.
Like 2500 hp big.
One of the white hats (aka managers) asked for a daily progress update.
So that afternoon our foreman went into his office to give him the update.
Note that this manager was a guy who wore a three piece suit every day and rarely set foot in the actual refinery part of the plant.
The manager was pissed because the foreman was filthy and stunk like ..... a refinery.
He said that he should clean up before entering the building.
So that night after work we hit a thrift store and bought the cheapest suits we could find and wore them to work the nest day. Note this was way back before nomex or company-issued work uniforms.
It didn't take long before the suits were covered in grease and grime, but the foreman was sure to wash his hands really well before going into the office building to deliver his daily update
The manager was furious but my foreman played dumb, he was dressed up and washed his hands, what was the problem?
The manager wanted to fire the whole crew but his superintendent told him that was a real bad idea if the manager wanted to get the hydrocracker unit back up and running.
So from then on every afternoon a maintenance supervisor would stop by the jobsite and get the update from us and pass it up the ladder.
That story became legendary in the company and local refining industry.
We could get away with a lot more back then. Good old days.