DoorDash is requiring engineers to deliver food — and they’re furious

[Jason]

DoorDash is requiring engineers to deliver food and they're upset

WWW.SFGATE.COM

---

'I didn't sign up for this.'

 

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

Then fucking quit you babies

[Chris-]

Any time there’s a LinkedIn post that goes, ‘Should interns get paid? Pick a reaction to say yes or no’, I always take a look at how people reacted and there is almost always a…call it a demographic divide between the two. Given what ‘No’ usually looks like on those posts, and thinking about the likely demographic makeup of a start-up’s engineering department, this is very unsurprising to me. 

[skillzdadirecta]

ONCE A MONTH  

[Joe]

I personally would have no issues doing this, but this is pretty fucking silly of DD. 

[SimpleG]

20 minutes ago, Joe said:

I personally would have no issues doing this, but this is pretty fucking silly of DD. 

Not to mention what if an employee doesnt own a vehicle , is the vehicle covered if there is a accident. 

[SuperSpreader]

Haha

[Keyser_Soze]

They're just gig workers anyway, they don't deserve any type of real rights.

[LazyPiranha]

Imagine getting an executive salary of $400k annually and bitching about having to do this once a month

[CitizenVectron]

Yeah at first (when I read the headline) I thought "that's really dumb of the company, how stupid." But then I read the article...and yeah, some of those people need to learn what it's like working on the front-end of the company.

[SuperSpreader]

2 minutes ago, CitizenVectron said:

Yeah at first (when I read the headline) I thought "that's really dumb of the company, how stupid." But then I read the article...and yeah, some of those people need to learn what it's like working on the front-end of the company.

 

This off-site isn't in my contract!! Waaaah!!

 

How about cutting out your bonuses, perks, meals, etc that also aren't in your contract. As long as they aren't making them do this in addition to normal hours 🤷‍♂️

[skillzdadirecta]

18 hours ago, SimpleG said:

Not to mention what if an employee doesnt own a vehicle , is the vehicle covered if there is a accident. 

Doordash supplies e-bikes for deliveries. They're everywhere in San Franciso.

[Zaku3]

6 minutes ago, CitizenVectron said:

Yeah at first (when I read the headline) I thought "that's really dumb of the company, how stupid." But then I read the article...and yeah, some of those people need to learn what it's like working on the front-end of the company.

 

My only complaints are if this is in addition to regular hours it sucks. Also it is taking money from actual drivers

[skillzdadirecta]

Just now, Zaku3 said:

 

My only complaints are if this is in addition to regular hours it sucks. Also it is taking money from actual drivers

I don't think it is in addition to regular hours and also, it's ONE DELIVERY A MONTH.

[Joe]

Quote

For employees unable to do deliveries, there are other programs in place to work with service employees and businesses. The program was launched, a spokesperson said, to "learn first-hand how the technology products we build empower local economies, which in turn helps us build a better product." Employees then gain "credits" through these services, which are reportedly built into an annual review.

Hard to argue with this then.

[DarkStar189]

I don't know the working conditions for all employees at Door Dash. Could a few of them potentially be like game developers who are forced to work 60-80 hours a week? In that case I'd be pissed too that I also have to squeeze in even just one delivery. 

[Chris-]

4 minutes ago, DarkStar189 said:

I don't know the working conditions for all employees at Door Dash. Could a few of them potentially be like game developers who are forced to work 60-80 hours a week? In that case I'd be pissed too that I also have to squeeze in even just one delivery. 

Maybe, but it highlights a more important issue, which is that engineers are incapable of thinking like human beings. 

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

my heart bleeds for these poor souls

 

(that said they and especially the drivers should have a union so that abrupt changes to work arrangements can’t be done on a management whim, though I do realize that this is not where and why the bulk of the complaints are coming from)

[TwinIon]

At first I thought this was because of some sort of driver shortage or something, but as a once a month dogfooding program, it totally makes sense.

 

I think it's always obvious when a company's developers don't use their own product.

 

It reminds me of when Facebook being desperate to get their devs to use android phones. Their android apps were giant pieces of bloatware, but everyone at the company had iPhones, so no one cared. I haven't had a FB app installed in a long time, so not really sure if it got better.

 

I think it was Sundar who said in an interview that he switches primary phones all the time, and often uses low to mid tier android phones just to get a feel for them. Given that a huge percent of all their users are likely using similar devices, it makes a lot of sense.

[chakoo]

- Sorry long incoherent rant ahead by a software dev -

As a long time software dev watching people's opinion on this subject has been headache inducing. The company is asking for all staff to dogfooding the product, this is normal in a lot of B2C companies. There was talk of "this isn't in my contract" when this was program that has been around for the company but put on a long pause over covid, so this isn't just some new directive out of the blue. There are some asking "well what if they don't drive", there is actually a list of options of what they can do and one is shadowing customer support, no car needed there. There are some complaining that it's BS they are forced to this after work, there was zero mention that this is an after work activity and it would be expected that they would do it during their normal work hours. ....

 

Please stop trying to think of reasons why this could be awful on these poor souls making over $200k a year. 

 

 

1 hour ago, DarkStar189 said:

I don't know the working conditions for all employees at Door Dash. Could a few of them potentially be like game developers who are forced to work 60-80 hours a week? In that case I'd be pissed too that I also have to squeeze in even just one delivery. 

The life of an app developer is nothing like that of a Game Developer. So if they're doing more than 40/50h a week their either being paid a ***k ton for it, are shit and/or slow, or personally grinding for a startup they have a stake in (IE they're gambling on a massive payout in 5 years). Game devs on the other hand are just exploited from top to bottom and do it for the passion (and they really shouldn't, I know because I've been there).

[chakoo]

32 minutes ago, TwinIon said:

At first I thought this was because of some sort of driver shortage or something, but as a once a month dogfooding program, it totally makes sense.

 

I think it's always obvious when a company's developers don't use their own product.

 

It reminds me of when Facebook being desperate to get their devs to use android phones. Their android apps were giant pieces of bloatware, but everyone at the company had iPhones, so no one cared. I haven't had a FB app installed in a long time, so not really sure if it got better.

 

I think it was Sundar who said in an interview that he switches primary phones all the time, and often uses low to mid tier android phones just to get a feel for them. Given that a huge percent of all their users are likely using similar devices, it makes a lot of sense.

 

I think FB has improved on the android development front because a lot of their HW products rely on it.

[GeneticBlueprint]

As a sort-of programmer myself, I do think that engineers should be required as part of their job to use the end product to see what improvements they can make and how the end users actually use it in real life.

[SuperSpreader]

Doordash should fire all the complainers immediately as they don't need those toxic individuals. 

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

52 minutes ago, GeneticBlueprint said:

As a sort-of programmer myself, I do think that engineers should be required as part of their job to use the end product to see what improvements they can make and how the end users actually use it in real life.

This is what actual nuts and bolts engineers who are any good do; they shadow or do the job at a basic level to get an understanding of what an operator does and to get some connection and shared understanding of the issues that they have