[ejrowley]

I work for a small company, not a startup (I've been here 9 years), about 20 people. Yesterday we launched a website, today we got Pizza. I was happy. It cost the company £100 but it made all of us feel appreciated.

A couple of weeks ago I ask an owner how much he wanted for an old TV we had in the office, hoping that he would say just take it (the tv was 8 years old and not been used for about 3), he didn't, he wanted its ebay value. We agreed £30. That made me feel sad, less appreciated.

tldr; Small things can affect people in a big way.

[h2s]

    > wanted old equipment for free
    > had to pay a nominal price for it instead
    > felt sad and less appreciated

Gotta say, your disappointment really isn't resonating with me. Sounds like quite a reasonable response on their part. People in management perform a constant balancing act with things like morale and expectations. Perhaps it wouldn't have been prudent to have you be seen to be getting "special treatment". Unless there were 19 similar old TVs to give to the rest of the team, then you can guarantee several people would have felt resentful about you getting yours for free.

[qu4z-2]

At my workplace it'd probably have been given for free, and I'm pretty sure none of my co-workers would resent the recipient. Come on, it's an 8 year-old TV. Everyone who wants a TV has a better one already. Are we really so petty?

[Xylakant]

A company can't just write off things that are in it's inventory. They can either be lost, destroyed, trashed or sold. If you sell them, it has to be at a reasonable market value or you're in trouble with the IRS. So it's not unreasonable to ask for the ebay value. Ask for a low ebay value if you're being nice.