I've worked places where the dual monitor denial was based on jealousy from other job titles like manager, producer, sales, etc. Who didn't recognize it as a task enabling tool, but perceived it as a status item that they should receive before the lowly developers.

Same goes for a quiet workspace even though their job relies heavily on talking and face to face communication.

My personal favorite is,"sure you can go to that conference/event that is related to our department." Followed by,"oh, we don't have anybody to fill in for you." And then all the aforementioned jealous employees go to something they could care less about just to get that sweet writeoff.

The lie of training seminars and conferences is always a carrot. Yet we are treated like shit at most companies for trying to get it. Obviously this doesn't apply to tech staples or cutting edge industry startups, but then again their influence on a metric is within a margin of error compared to the rest of the country.