My wife is the only one in her team was given an old desktop at company, everyone else have a laptop. Both of us using Mac, and her company's IT department cannot figure out a way to install VPN to allow her work on a Mac (plus Excel on Mac is super frustrating than Windows, and 99% of her work is based on Excel) .
She asked for her boss many times for a laptop or turn-in her desktop for a laptop, but seems her boss is a type of person that worries about her job more than anything else and afraid to ask, so she just gave excuses like no budget or admin person doesn't allow.
Periodically, her team want to work from home, but given the fact my wife cannot work from home, they blame behind my wife's back about why she cannot buy a windows laptop for company. The fact is we do not need a windows laptop at home, we already have two Mac which are enough for our personal life. It was icing and her boss decide to let everyone work from home, and forced my wife to take a PTO. She did not follow but went to the company even with danger and risk on the road.
It is a public traded company, I do not believe they cannot afford a laptop. I think the problem is coming from her boss, a head of group under a department. Sounds to me she is either afraid to lose her job or just doesn't care about her people, therefore she does not support her team, and even asking for more work from the department while her group is already exhausted.
Personally, I think we are not obligated to buy a laptop just for work, while all other people have the laptop but only my wife doesn't. At what point what should she do to correct this?