I notice that none of the comment think about scenario where the engineer doesn't know how to drive or doesn't own a car
Interesting point!
I wonder if a good compromise would be for them to ride along with another driver?
DoorDash is requiring engineers to deliver food
51–60 of 86 posts
Re: DoorDash is requiring engineers to deliver food
#52I once worked at a company that mandated everybody do help desk one day a month for a similar reason. Everybody thought it was a good idea including me. There was a 5 month span when I was working 10-12h days (yes it was a startup and I was young and dumb) to get something shipped. By the 3rd time of having to take a day to work help desk I was furious that on the one hand I was expected to work myself bald to ship a…
I feel it has good intentions, but the realities just don't line up in my mind. Admittedly super negative outlook
The CEOs and executives that actually decide what the product IS will most likely either feign participation, or keep 'rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic'
The leagues of engineers and other relatively disconnected workers being encouraged to do this won't collectively Do Better.
They'll keep trying to keep their heads above water in their sprints/what-have-you, while a vague entity sets the direction
Re: DoorDash is requiring engineers to deliver food
#53Requiring the engineer to actually use the product they are working on in real life is good. Maybe it can help make the experience better for the dashers, the restaurants, and the company. That $400,000/yr engineer makes more money in a day than a DoorDash worker makes in 2 weeks working full time. I do not feel any sympathy for the 1 dash they will have to make a month.
Since I first heard about this, this is what I pictured in my head:
Alex: I’m headed to Bob’s for some lunch. Want anything?
Tory: Sure. Hey, let me put in a DD order for it.
Alex: Sweet, that’s this month down…
Re: DoorDash is requiring engineers to deliver food
#54Earlier quoted context omitted.
Seems like a great way to filter out prima donnas who can't be bothered to put themselves in the place of their users. I would be happy to be rid of anyone complaining about this policy.
It definitely is. Any engineer that won't eat their own dog food (if at all possible) is net a mediocre engineer, or otherwise immature (hasn't progressed far enough in their career; doesn't yet realize how much they don't know). DoorDash is better off without many of those types. It's an excellent way to clear the house of engineers that are more likely to hold back the product than advance it. Which of course doesn…
In all of my experience, it has never been engineers misunderstanding the users. It has always, ALWAYS, been C-suites, Executives, and VPs pushing product features to
1. Entice investors 2. Planning for some external company event like a merger 3. Pandering to analysts 4. Pandering to the sales department, who again, sell into VPs and not to users
I think it's incredibly out of touch to suggest engineers are the ones that lack empathy for their own product, and not the myriad of individuals who haven't touched a line of code or a design file for the past decade. As an engineer I field support tickets every day, I know what problems the system has, no amount of me using the application is going to change what gets consistently submited through help desk.
You'll have to forgive me for being bitter after a decade of trying to innovate in the products I worked on only to be shut down every single step of the way by upper management; then to have to swallow this self-righteous PR stunt where the world seems to blame "out of touch" workers for not knowing what their job is and not having empathy for their users.
Beyond that, don't get me wrong, I don't think doing deliveries is beneath anyone. I would probably accept half a million dollars to do deliveries. However, I do think it's incredibly immoral to suggest that you can pay some people $200/hr to do deliveries, but others only $7/hr. Instead of focusing ire on those that are upset that their job duties are not what was described to them when hired; perhaps we can be upset that doordash has the capacity to pay their laborers much much more, and chooses not to in order to ensure they can pay half a million dollars for what everyone here considers "mediocre engineers".
Also, again, I personally would not work at doordash because of this requirement. However, I wouldn't have any issue with the company if they CLEARLY outlined this job requirement during their hiring process; which it looks like they did not do.
Re: DoorDash is requiring engineers to deliver food
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
That they get paid a lot? And sometimes it’s to deliver groceries.
Getting paid a lot means you can demand anything now?
Yeah, and they can quit and work somewhere else that’ll pay them just as well if they don’t like it. They’re not being asked to scrub toilets, they’re being asked to exercise the company’s product. The thing that pays their salary.
Let’s see how many actually quit over this. My guess is few to none.
Re: DoorDash is requiring engineers to deliver food
#56Has anyone considered that this is simply a viral stunt created by the gossip website (which I'd rather not name) in order to promote itself? Even if the commentary isn't fake, it's just one engineer within a huge organization. For those upvoting this story, shouldn't our outrage/attention be directed elsewhere?
> which I'd rather not name
Why? It's the primary source where this was first "reported".
Many many DoorDash employees confirmed that this was really happening on Blind.
https://www.teamblind.com/post/Doordash-making-engineers-del...
Re: DoorDash is requiring engineers to deliver food
#57Earlier quoted context omitted.
One of the issues I have in the whole software industry is the lack of empathy for regular folks and a lack understanding of how hard the average person has to bust their ass just to make it in life with just the basics. I personally believe it leads to products that are often disconnected completely from the people who actually use them and damaging to our social fabric. I applaud DoorDash for this move and quite fr…
> One of the issues I have in the whole software industry is the lack of empathy for regular folks and a lack understanding of how hard the average person has to bust their ass just to make it in life with just the basics. And how is that industry issue?
My guess is they're talking about money.
Many parts of life are much easier when you're financially secure. And the challenges to navigate vary by wealth level.
Re: DoorDash is requiring engineers to deliver food
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
That they get paid a lot? And sometimes it’s to deliver groceries.
Getting paid a lot means you can demand anything now?
It's not exactly anything. It's actually using the product they are developing. Is that really so crazy?
While not exactly the same, we were responsible for developing an in-house app used by our retail employees. Every single engineer working on the app would every so often shadow one of these employees to see firsthand how it was being used in the real world.
Re: DoorDash is requiring engineers to deliver food
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
Seems like a great way to assist the engineers in just finding new jobs...
Seems like a great way to filter out prima donnas who can't be bothered to put themselves in the place of their users. I would be happy to be rid of anyone complaining about this policy.
Totally agree. I wonder what other companies can do similarly.
Re: DoorDash is requiring engineers to deliver food
#60Let's do some math. So, say you're paying me $15 an hour. Really, if you own a business by the time you pay for taxes, infrastructure, capital outlay and insurance you are really paying about $45 an hour for me to hang out and do what you tell me to do at varying levels of competency. You need to make that much more value from my labor per-hour or you are going to go out of business. Say I have a piece of software th…
How are you not double counting your time?
Regardless of how you spend your hour, it still costs them $45/hr for you. If $7.50 of that is paying for idle time, that's still part of the $45, it doesn't get added again. If they could save those 10 minutes, that would just make you more productive and allow them to reach $45/hr easier.