That honestly sounds like a pretty poorly run business.
One of my current employees basically checked out at her last job because the boss was too tight to replace a janky VGA cable.
With us, she goes above and beyond, generating thousands a year in additional profits, because we and all it takes is making sure she gets the tools she needs and occasionally stocking the fridge with her preferred brand of orange juice.
I don't judge businesses with how well-stocked their fridge is or how they coddle their employees.
It wasn't a case of my employer depriving me of tools necessary to do my daily tasks. It was a case of my employer pointing out that I had a very trivial desire that was totally unnecessary, and that I was being selfish by not considering their POV.
The church I worked for is not an independent entity; they're part of the largest and oldest corporation on Earth - literally. They operate 100% on freewill donations from the faithful; they don't run any profit-making enterprise. They are beholden to rules and regulations from above, but the diocese doesn't routinely assist them financially in daily operations or capital costs.
The church has to consider insurance and liability in everything they do, and my supervisor was the person in charge of making sure that employees were aware of, and on board with, rules and regulations like that.
That church is able to sustain over two dozen subunits of ministries, run by unpaid and mostly untrained volunteers. They've consistently maintained and improved the beauty of the physical plant, all while drawing significantly lower revenue than their neighboring churches. And the reason they can do that is because they're able to teach people like me to think about what it means to buy a $1 pen with a $0.25 label attached.
One of my current employees basically checked out at her last job because the boss was too tight to replace a janky VGA cable.
With us, she goes above and beyond, generating thousands a year in additional profits, because we and all it takes is making sure she gets the tools she needs and occasionally stocking the fridge with her preferred brand of orange juice.