6-20 A Study in Responsibility Accounting The David Machine Tool Company is in the doldrums. Production volume has fallen to a ten-year low. The com- pany has a nucleus of skilled tool-and-die men who could find employment elsewhere if they were laid off. Three of these men have been transferred tem- porarily to the building and grounds department, where they have been doing menial tasks such as sweeping, washing walls, and so on for the past month. These men have earned their regular rate of $8 per hour. Their have been charged to the building and grounds department. The supervisor of building and grounds has just confronted the controller as follows: "Look at the cockeyed performance report you pencil pushers have given me. The helpers' line reads: wages DEVIATION