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Postmates NYC treats their deliverymen like trash

peterk.co

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Re: Postmates NYC treats their deliverymen like trash

#21

Post by potatolicious »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #20
potatolicious wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "That depends on whether they're constrained by supply (couriers) or demand (customers)." Treating someone decently and with respect is not a supply/demand equation. Your sentence is why everyone hates us. Are you rude to your waiter because he's on the short end of the supply/demand stick? > "and choosing which couriers to accept based on how early they arrive for their job interview seems like an excellent metric…

> You can determine who is an effective courier and who isn't by having them deliver things. I agree with your post, but I have to point out that his first job was delivering himself to the presentation on time. Given zero other information, I'd take the guy who showed up pretty early over the guy who barely made it. But as you said, that's not really enough information.

> "I agree with your post, but I have to point out that his first job was delivering himself to the presentation on time."

Yes, and he did. I'd agree also that given no other information I'd take the guy who was earlier, but that seems on the verge of "how many pieces of flair are you wearing" territory. If you expect people to be early, tell people to be early.

"The orientation begins at 6pm, late arrivals will not be accepted, but early arrivals (within reason) given additional consideration. We are after all a delivery service that aims to beat customer expectations."

How hard is that?

I'm a firm believer in communicating expectations. Not communicating your expectations and then expecting it is unreasonable, and rationalizing your own lack of communication into some twisted character-judge logic is just arrogance.

Re: Postmates NYC treats their deliverymen like trash

#22

Post by ethomson »

semanticist wrote: post #18
ethomson wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The linked article does not indicate that the applicant was told to arrive 5-10 minutes early, and it explicitly says that they were to reschedule for another day , not the next session in 30 minutes.

The linked article absolutely shows that the applicant was told to arrive 5-10 minutes early, in this image embedded in the article: http://peterk.co/content/images/2014/Jul/email.png "Late arrivals will not be admitted, be sure to arrive 5-10 minutes early."

Indeed; thank you for pointing that out.

Re: Postmates NYC treats their deliverymen like trash

#23

Post by thesagan »

vcherubini wrote: post #10
DanBlake wrote: post #7

This reminds me of Van Halen and their "no brown M&M's clause" http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/232420 To sum it up, Van Halen would put in their contracts that they are to be served M&M's with no brown ones present. If they found that there was indeed brown ones, they would not play because they felt the gig was not paying attention to detail. Seems to me that if you are applying for a job that basically is all a…

They weren't late, though? If they wanted people to show up 5-10 minutes early, make the training at 5:50 or 5:55. Don't say 6 and really mean earlier.

Exactly. "Early" is generally understood to mean before the "time in question" -- the time that serves as the frame of reference when an engagement will occur.

Asking participants to arrive early would, at least to me, strike as a caveat to those who might otherwise arrive late -- but not at the "time in question".

On time is on time, which is AT the stated time. Not before, not after.

Re: Postmates NYC treats their deliverymen like trash

#24

Post by alialkhatib »

It depends on your understanding of the invitation. I agree that this is contentious, but I could see how Postmates would argue that the invitation only incidentally states that the orientation begins at 6:00pm. The time you are requested to arrive is 5-10 minutes before that.

This isn't about the forces of the courier market (although I'm sure there's a fascinating market in NYC). This is about breeding a culture where participants in that culture have a sense of punctuality that supersedes all else. I wouldn't have been much more surprised if showing up too early would have gotten the author turned away. It's easy to show up 45 minutes early to something if you blow out everything leading up to that appointment, which you can do because you see it as a one-off. Being on time for every appointment you make takes more diligence. It takes cutting people (even yourself) off from an arguably more interesting diversion.

I wouldn't lose much sleep over this story; the author describes another courier who's been in this situation before. He clearly failed and was given a second chance. This isn't one of those "fail once and you're banished for life" kinds of things. Postmates will probably keep slamming the door in these people's faces until they show up 5-10 minutes early (ie they learn the lesson Postmates is trying to teach).

Or, you know, they find another job, where this kind of nitpicking isn't normal.

Re: Postmates NYC treats their deliverymen like trash

#25

Post by cjbprime »

potatolicious wrote: post #21
pavel_lishin wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You can determine who is an effective courier and who isn't by having them deliver things. I agree with your post, but I have to point out that his first job was delivering himself to the presentation on time. Given zero other information, I'd take the guy who showed up pretty early over the guy who barely made it. But as you said, that's not really enough information.

> "I agree with your post, but I have to point out that his first job was delivering himself to the presentation on time." Yes, and he did . I'd agree also that given no other information I'd take the guy who was earlier, but that seems on the verge of "how many pieces of flair are you wearing" territory. If you expect people to be early, tell people to be early. "The orientation begins at 6pm, late arrivals will not…

Thanks, good points, I agree that it's disrespectful not to communicate the actual expectations.
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