DoorDash wants its non-driver staff to dogfood the product.

lol. ok.

https://sfgate.com/tech/article/...

I get the whole let’s put our white collars workers in the blue collar workers shoes. Heck, I felt that way when I was in customer service (not at DoorDash). But I got into engineering so I wouldn’t have to be back in customer service ever again, even if just for a day of shadowing. But we know once the CEO or another c-suite gets verbal or physical abuse while making a dash, then that whole empathy program is gonna end.

Mixed feelings on this. But the whole idea that a person is "too good for <whatever>" sits wrong with me.

@ctnqhk You've nailed exactly where my headspace is on this.

Would I do it? One delivery a month? Sure whatever. It's a good excuse to get out of the house and I might learn about a new restaurant in the process.

But I'm also just cynical enough to think it's not really about dogfooding the product so people can appreciate the technology or the "communities" DoorDash is building, it's about an executive somewhere feeling good about the press they get for creating a theatrical simulacrum of empathy.

Dog fooding is awesome and I am all in for it.

Employees who threw a rage fit on this move were nothing but entitled fucks who lack empathy and perspective towards building their own product.

@Floydimus Regardless of your feelings, if it's not in your job description, you shouldn't be forced to do it. End of Story.

@nitnip Oh oh is this where we get to rant about "other duties as assigned"??

Maybe you shouldn't work for a company whose product disgusts your this much.

In my experience the first two or three weeks is all it ever took at any job to discover major process, product, and service improvements that either made money or saved money.

A day or two at the low end probably isnt gonna kill anyone, but if you didnt sign up for it theres probably a good reason for it. Humility is a *fantastic* quality to have..for those of us who value it in ourselves and others. And then there are those who could, not unreasonably, make the argument that they worked enough minimum wage terrible service jobs in their lifetime.
I don't believe of course in this idea of "paying your dues", of "I had to suffer and grind so why shouldnt you?"
Because I dont believe in fairness (like, at all), looking at the strictures of life as mostly arbitrary, and so we have to ask: if we had no concern for decorum, or who we might upset, how much faster and better could we make things for the largest number of people?

It's a good idea, if and only if:

1. No differentiation based on rank

2. There are alternative ways to participate for those with valid concerns (disabilities, etc)

3. It doesn't take significant time out of your normal tasks, is salaried normally, and doesn't require overtime.

As far as I can see, this company is doing it in a pretty good way.

At my employer we have a similar program to work with customers, although it's voluntary — but since it's during work time and you effectively get paid twice it's pretty popular.

@bittersweet my dude, your requirement no.3 is an extremely hackable point. The spirit of the proposal is something, but the implementation would be... something else entirely. I see four scenarios:

01) Let's say that the company does *not* requires overtime and pays engineers an *engineering cheese* for the hours spent on definitely-non-engineering activities.
Heh, I know plenty of jerks who would develop an algorithm to know precisely how much can they drag their feet without being too obvious about it. Maybe a couple CoD quickies while someone else does the delivery.

11) the company requires overtime, and pays engineering coin: see case 01.

10) the company requires overtime but pays basically nothing for it: fuck them for harshly devaluating the time of overworked engineers.

00) the company does not require overtime but pays dog shit for some of the working hours: it's a fucking hours cutout, disguised as a PR move.

so, unless there is another variable, it could be a bad thing.

@JsonBoa

For the first case, if you got employees which are *that* antagonistic towards their employer, you've got bigger problems.

@bittersweet preach. still trying to figure out a way to filter those out.

@nitnip every contract agreement I have read says something like this

"Employee must perform their duties which can be outside of their job description as demanded by company from time to time".

If it's in contract, it's in job description.

@Floydimus shit contract. Wouldn't sign.

@nitnip almost every company has such a contract. Good luck with not starving.

@Floydimus We were told to move our desks from upstairs to downstairs. My supervisor broke his desk and there are still pieces laying on the floor in his office. Some things should be done by people with dedicated mechanical skills.

All I had to move was my stuff. They built a bunch of cubicle desks for the rest of us. It was kind of comical, but it really should have been done differently. My super is extremely smart, but some desks are made like crap and are easy to break.

@Demolishun that's a desk problem and not anyou problem.

I get the point, but engineers are already overworked enough and probably already doing more than 40 hours with no overtime because salary. If they let them do it during normal work hours as a "break" that's okay, but don't force them to do even more outside of their hours.

@Floydimus Can't hear you. Can you stop gargling on management dick first?

@nitnip lol nice one.