I don't care what they're getting as much as I care about what I'm getting.

If I have a nice dual-monitor setup, in a business where everyone gets a 19" Dell, I will be more productive. That will lead to more promotions, lower odds of being fired, etc. I will come out ahead. Plus, I'll be happier.

If my employer benefits too, how does that hurt me?

Fair enough! I don't fully agree but it's a matter of opinion ultimately. Was just answering your question as I see it.

I haven't worked in an office in years, but in my case it's travel. The company has travel policies that are what they are. If I'm going to spend my own money and points to upgrade to travel that is outside of policy, well I'll do that. I might object if company policy were to travel baggage-class but it's really not. So I'll pay out-of-pocket here and there.

For a while it was company policy that all international flights had to be business class.

It all got restricted due to covid, and I doubt they’re going back :/

I wouldn't mind getting fired if I worked for a corporation that can't even provide proper screens for employees. Not getting equipment from employer is only acceptable for startups low on cash.

Especially when you can get half decent 120hz ones for like $400-$600 now. If they can't pony up for that then there's a lot more to the story or they are going to be a pain in the rear to deal with whenever you need resoures.

There's sometimes more to the story.

Another lesson from my career: No place is perfect. Don't make simplistic judgements.

I didn't say there can't more to the story, but I'm not going to just assume they always have a good reason either. It's not a simplistic judgment, it's simply working with the information I have on hand. If they have a good reason for not giving me the resources I need to do my job better than I'm all ears. I sincerely mean that. Maybe they can't get me the $3000 thing I want, but a $1500 one instead that is a suitable compromise. That being said I'm not just going to hear "no" and then buy what I think I need for the company.

I've done a lot of work in nonprofits, education, and government domains, and this can be a bit cumbersome. My experience is that in most cases, this comes down to administrative or bureaucratic issues which make sense on an organizational level, but very little sense on an individual contributor level.

At an organizational level, it's often not so much about money as about fairness, controls to avoid corruption, IT/supplier overhead costs, or similar sorts of reasons. I've been in C-suite, individual contributor, and everything in between. To flip things around, it's often cheaper to by a standard $3000 thing than a non-standard $1500 thing. Equipment costs are much lower than labor costs.

From my perspective, given three choices:

1. Spend $2000 of my time and $2000 of my boss' time to make an exception for a $500 monitor purchase

2. Be less productive

3. Drop $500

Often, I pick #3. I like my manager, and I don't want to complicate his life over a monitor. That lets me complicate his life over more important things, by the way.

When I was a director, I'd occasionally even spend personal dollars to buy things employees needed too. Dropping $20 is often easier than making a case to expense $20.

I was a freelancer/production company owner for a decade. I worked with plenty of non-profits and such. I actually am very sympathetic to the many reasons their hands can be tied. I assure you this is not a lack of imagination or understanding.

That being said, this is not that situation. I am a salaried employee at a small tech startup. It's always either "we have the money/don't have the money" or "I don't see the point." Luckily the latter is rare because they trust my judgment. But in the case of the former, while i get it's about resources, I'm not going to make it my problem. I am not going to fund their startup with my hardware. Which is why they are reasonable with me and just change their expectations when the resources aren't there. Of course I always try to find a solution that accomplishes the goal because I want us all to succeed, but I am not going to do it the way they want if they can't pay for it and it will only happen on my own dime.

I think you're failing to make a distinction between equipment that is critical to your job and equipment that simply helps you by making it more enjoyable and comfortable. Yes, the company should buy the equipment that is critical. Could I actually do my job on a 19" monitor? Yes, absolutely. Could I do it at a desk with no personal effects or decorations? Yes, absolutely. Both the monitor upgrade and pictures of my kids are things that are worth the expense to me to make the job more enjoyable. Would it be nice if the company sprang for enormous monitors for everyone? Yes indeed, that would be something to applaud. Is it necessary? No.

My Red wasn't critical and they had a crappy camera on-hand so it's not like I couldn't have done the job, just so we are clear. I don't need my lights, or my primes, or any of my stuff. They had the very bare minimum. But it was garbage so I negotiated accordingly. And we all won in the end!

Negotiating an increased salary for the use of your capitalized equipment is a terrible use of resources. The fact that they agreed to that tells me that they detected it was a touchy subject for you and went the appeasement rout. If they cared about the equipment they would have preferred to purchase/finance it or lease it.

>The fact that they agreed to that tells me that they detected it was a touchy subject for you and went the appeasement rout.

It wasn't touchy, it was reasonable. I guarantee you not one engineer at our company uses their personal computer. It's no different than saying "I want a work computer." They were going to buy me film equipment but hadn't determined exactly what we needed yet and hadn't set aside enough resources (cash) for it yet. So this was a useful stopgap that worked for everyone. Plus it's not like I got 10k more or something absurd. It was a modest amount that made me happy and got them what they needed.

>If they cared about the equipment they would have preferred to purchase/finance it or lease it.

Wasn't for sale and neither of us wanted to get into a lease. Plus they absolutely made out like bandits if we put dollar costs on this. I was just happy to have some cash for using my gear that made my life easier while also establishing a precedent that my gear isn't there for them to joyride.

I also think a big factor is what kind of equipment we're talking about. If you expect the equipment's value to be impacted by the use, as your "my gear isn't there for them to joyride" comment touches on, this is a bigger issue. I would never use my personal computer (or expensive camera equipment) for work without some sort of compensation because that usage implies a certain amount of deterioration (physical wear/damage) and/or compromise (corporate software/policies imposed on my machine). This seems pretty negligible for a monitor.

I'm confused what you were disagreeing with me about then tbh. Sure you can argue a monitor doesn't rise to that level but clearly we agree that there is some line here, even if we don't agree on where it is.

Was I disagreeing with you? I don't think so. I was just making a distinction between the use cases since you objected to the monitor purchase by comparing it to the use of your camera.

Depends. With stuff like mice and keyboards it's really not worth bothering anyone, in my opinion. Those are personal preferences.

About monitors and larger stuff, you may argue. Employers can find and buy good ones in bulk, instead of making everyone individually spend hours being annoyed, searching and comparing and buying better equipment. Either way, for monitors the financial hit will be way less than 1% of a typical salary (okay, may depend on location, but a monitor lasts 5+ years).

I agree it has to stop somewhere. For me that would be stuff like Unity3D subscriptions, or tables, or FPGA tools and oscilloscopes. But monitors... shrug

> you are contributing to a workplace culture where employees buy what they need

This is nevertheless a great point. This culture is coming if it isn't here already especially when you add WFH to the mix

I’ve stuck to my guns a little more lately with WFH. When they want something done on a certain time table, if there’s some resource I know that they failed to get me and need, I remind them that it’s going to take longer because I don’t have ______ when they ask “why?”

Frankly, I’ve been surprised at the results. Generally, they just say “OK” and the matter is settled and I don’t have unrealistic expectations saddled on me. It’s what I like about my company, they don’t dance around things. There’s a lot of trust and open communication. Plus every now and then they give me what I need. Because they know I’m being honest and not just trying to buy myself new toys.