A recent decision by the food delivery service DoorDash is getting everyone talking and many employees very mad.

Beginning in January, all employees will be required to make at least one delivery per month. ALL employees. That includes engineers, directors, and yes, even the CEO himself.

This isn’t actually the first time that they have put this program in place. It existed in 2018, but stopped because of the pandemic.

An engineer with a reported total compensation, or TC, of $400,000 a year griped about the responsibility of having to do a once-a-month delivery. “What the actual f—k?” the engineer wrote on the platform. “I didn’t sign up for this, there was nothing in the offer letter/job description about this.”

(Blind requires all users to register using an email for the company they’re employed with, meaning the likelihood of this post being falsified are slim.)

While some people replied to the original post to say it would be a helpful opportunity to develop empathy and learn about the myriad frustrations of delivery workers, others sided with the original poster.

“Not acceptable in anyway!” said one.

I can understand both sides of the coin on this issue. On one hand, the people that are mad about it have a right to be mad. They didn’t sign up to be delivery drivers, that’s why they’re not delivery drivers. Imagine working at a hospital as a receptionist and then being told, “Okay, now you’re going to have to start changing the diapers of the elderly at least once a month.” That would be absurd.

On the other hand, I understand the idea in that it helps them to understand what it is like to deliver and actually having that experience can help them do their jobs better.

One of the biggest gripes that I had at a former job of mine was that the higher-ups would come and try to tell me how to do my job when they had no understanding of it whatsoever. I was an expert in my field and they were not. I knew what to do and they did not, yet they would come and try to tell me to do something that is practically impossible to do.

Eventually, I just quit caring about what they said and just did my work the way that I’m supposed to. They get their way by telling me how to do my job, and I get mine by ignoring them and doing my job the right way.

Sources:
SFGATE

Photo Credit: Diverse Stock Photos