Here's why I hate working for large companies. There is a phone at a desk on the other side my office that no one is using. It's got caller ID and a speaker phone. My phone doesn't have that. I can't just switch the phones because something has to be done to my phone line to support the different type of phone. So I sent an email asking for the lines to be switched so that I could have the fancy phone at my desk. The answer was no. Why? Because "consultants are not allowed to have those phones." (I'm a consultant.)

So it's better for the phone to sit there unused than for a consultant (*gasp*) to be allowed to use it.