The worker asking for better equipment may be describing a problem effort cannot solve.

Some limits have nothing to do with willingness. A blunt tool, a slow machine, a chair that hurts by noon: no amount of trying harder gets past them, and the person asking is reporting a fact rather than making an excuse. Treating the request as an attitude problem keeps the fault where it cannot be fixed. Effort has a ceiling, and equipment often sets it.

If someone tells you the tools are the problem, ask to be shown rather than deciding in advance. Try the job yourself with what they have. And if you are the one asking, describe the cost in time and injuries rather than in frustration.