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Comment by toomanybeersies | Hacker News Reader

When I started my first job as a developer a few years back, my boss (non-technical) apparently asked my manager if it was possible for me to do my job on an iPad instead of a Macbook, as iPads are cheaper.

Obviously my manager said no.

I should've taken it as a sign of things to come. My boss wouldn't even pay for my stationary, I had to buy my own pens and paper, let alone get my any peripherals like a monitor or a keyboard.

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this kind of marginal cost-cutting at the expense of medium/long-term productivity is commonplace yet baffling to me. even if it doesn't increase productivity, surely it increases retention to some degree, I just don't get why you wouldn't make a small investment here as an owner/manager.

I've had the same recurring thoughts.

Surely hardware is such a miniscule cost compared to the bodies using it 8 hours a day.

I have never encountered a carpenter whose boss tried to get them to use the cheapest possible tool (especially the wrong kind of tool) for their job. Why would we be different, other than having bosses unfamiliar with the work they are managing.

With these kind of "cost effective" bosses I suggest offering remote work, it usually works beautifully and you don't have to endure their ridiculous attitude 8+ hours a day.

Conveniently my "cost effective" boss worked remotely, so at least I didn't have to tolerate him in person more than once a month.

Everyone else at the job was super cool, I just really didn't gel with the CEO. I think maybe it was because he never saw us he treated us as some abstract cost centre.

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