As someone who has worked at home for many years, and has a nice home office setup. $1k is not nearly enough... you need monitors, a decent desk, a nice chair, office supplies, a printer/scanner, the list goes on and on.
No mic/webcam for meetings. Maybe own a laptop but don't have a desk/chair.
The 1k isn't about funding a fancy setup to permanently work from home. It's about filling the gaps so that they can work from home as effectively as possible during this time.
But i guess the opinion of having a comfortable setup is unpopular here, since i got downvoted. lol.
I'm assuming of course that the $1k is for the office itself not for any other tech - i.e. that the employees have a laptop.
I have the Ikea hand-cranked version of a stand up desk, and a normal Ikea office chair. Those are by far the biggest expenses but I think they were under $500 together. A good screen is $250-$600 (I got a g-sync one because this is also my gaming space and my gaming rig feeds the same monitor). Unpopular opinion: more than one big external screen is a waste.
My office supplies are a good pen and a stack of printer paper I grab from the office when I'm there. I have never seen the need for a printer or scanner or any other office supplies.
I'd say $1k isn't exactly luxurious, but if we agree that anyone can do fine with ikea furniture and one external monitor then it's just right.