Dashing through the door...

I'm not a DoorDash user. 

It's not that I don't order takeout. It's that I'm either ordering from a place that's within walking distance or, if I'm having the meal(s) delivered, I'm working directly with a restaurant that has its own delivery system. At some point, I'm sure that I'll decide it's too crappy to go out and fetch my order, or the restaurants that still hire their own drivers will give up on it and start using a service like DoorDash. 

But I know that there are plenty of people who use it regularly. And I'll probably end up being one of them.

DoorDash is, of course, part of the gig economy, and all the bad and good that this entails. The good is the flexibility. For those who don't want (or can't find) a full-time corporate job, who want to be artsy but still eat, who want to pick up some extra bucks through a side hustle, DoorDash et al. is, if not a dream come true, then at least a way to eke out a living.

The bad is, of course, the lack of benefits and any sense of permanency, the need to be perpetually hustling, the struggle with often truly shitty working conditions and practices. (A few years ago, DoorDash got clobbered for screwing its drivers out of their tips.)

So, DoorDash - except for the investors and founders, who got rich off of this unicorn - is a decidely mixed bag for the gig workers who make it possible. And will be until DoorDash replaces those gig workers with robots. 

But until that day arrives, DoorDash has a program - WeDash - the requires all employees, from the CEO on down, to go out there and dash - i.e., work as delivery drivers (or shadow in some outside-facing role, like customer support) - a minimum of one day a month.

WeDash is the company's flagship employee-engagement program, which aims to have workers "learn firsthand how the technology products we build empower local economies, which in turn helps us build a better product," a DoorDash spokesperson said. (Source: Yahoo News)

Personally, I think that this is an excellent idea. 

Sure, the beancounters will not doubt come up with ways to count more beans - and to do so in ways that won't make them look like they're trying to rip off the drivers. And the techies focused on robotics will spend the time figuring out how to perfect non-human delivery systems. In fact, the company has a division dedicated to robotics, and it's been around for a few years. Here's a rendering from a patent application that DoorDash filed. But basically it's not a half-bad idea for people throughout an organization to understand what "the help" has to go through on a daily basis.

I haven't seen it in years, but I used to, on occasion, watch a TV show, Undercover Boss, in which Mr./Ms. Big disguised himself/herself and went out to labor for a week or so among the proles of the organization. The head of Waste Management went out to pick up porta-potties. The CEO of Wolf Lodge went out to one of the lodges and fished kid-turd out of the pool. 

Each show ended with the no-longer-undercover boss revealing that they would be fine-tuning their processes to make a few minor changes that would make work life better at the lower end. And, in a Queen for the Day like riff, would choose one employee deserving of something special: a new car so they didn't have to hitchhike twenty-miles during an ice storm to get to to work; a modest college scholarship for some loyal worker's kid. 

Nothing fundamental about workers' pay or benefits ever changed. New things that were implemented tended to be a skimcoat. And it always amazed me how insanely grateful the one chosen employee was for the benevolence that was shown them. 

Anyway, WeDash kinda-sorta reminds me of Undercover Boss. Only without the one employee who wins something.

Still, I believe it's worthwhile for employees to have at least some sort of understanding of what the "little people" go through. And the higher up the stack those employees are, the more worthwhile I believe it to be.

But one employee, an engineer - said to make $400K per year - wasn't having any. On Blind, a social platform that allows employees to anonymously grumble up a storm, they (and here, I'm pretty sure I mean he) wrote:

"Mandatory 'WeDash' starts from next year. You need to dash once a month. WILL BE TRACKED IN PERFORMANCE REVIEWS!! What the actual fuck? I didn't sign up for this, there was nothing in the offer letter/job description about this."

A number of other DoorDash employees chimed in. The disgruntled engineer had their (his) defenders, but others defended the program. 

"Most of my coworkers and I are excited. DD pays well and I get to better understand what I'm working on, and hopefully improve the experience for our dashers. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯," a DoorDash user posted on Blind.

Someone from another company added: 

"Seriously? They're paying you 400K and want you to deliver food once a month so you can actually experience your product and you're complaining? What's wrong with you?" posted a user who works at DocuSign.

I'm mostly with the poster from DocuSign. 

Once a month sounds like too much - too disruptive of your workflow, etc. But once or twice a year? This can only yield ideas for improving service to customers, and (one can hope at least) work life for the dashers. (Until they can replace them all with robots, that is.)

As for the $400K whiner: suck it up, buttercup. Or, to quote the late and inimitable Ann Landers: kwitcherbitchin.