Why a $89 portable monitor can beat a corporate IT budget
Monitors for Work
A former IT employee argues that companies waste money on poor monitors for skilled staff, and that cheap portable monitors can bridge the gap. With employee costs at $100k–$400k, even a 1% performance boost justifies spending $1000 on hardware. The author suggests that employees should buy their own portable monitors and get reimbursed, and that job seekers should demand adequate hardware.
If you can get a 50% performance boost for 1% of the users that’s really worth doing.
- pttrn
Just started a new remote contracting gig and did a one-week on-site “getting to know each other” thing. I was shocked that everyone in the office had dual 27” 1080p monitors. Didn’t know they even made 1080p monitors that big!
Anyway after a week of staring at that blurry mess I was having eye focusing issues every night trying to read a book. Those monitors should be treated as ergonomic hazard. Total disgrace.
- senderista
The only way to get an extra monitor during my first stint at AWS was to loot one from the desk of a departing colleague (before IT got their hands on it). Fortunately there was no shortage of departing colleagues.
- rnantes
If you are working with text a monitor with high pixel density is important. 4K 27” is good for Windows, 5K 27” is great for Macs. I think companies should provide a monitor of this calibre and a laptop powerful enough to easily drive them to technical workers. I would spend my own money on the hardware if I could use it for work. It’s like if a company said they will give you a $5000 pay raise, but you have to use a 2006 flip phone from now on. I think a lot of people would refuse the raise.
- reqs
TBH 27" is a sweet spot for me, I feel overwhelmed with 32″ screen. 4k to get a retina like quality, which makes text more comfortable to read.
- lostmsu
In 2016 I bought a $700 40in curved 4k monitor for my job at Amazon. It's funny they probably spent over $1500 on a laptop I almost never used but did not want to pay for a decent monitor.