5 ms·

Who would have ever thought that delivering food to lazy people would require a degree and 5 years of JS experience.

by vgeek 5y ago

bluefirebrand 5y ago
This seems like a really good way to have your employees leave, to me. I've worked retail and food services and delivery jobs. I got into software to never ever have to do that again.
- almost_usual 5y ago
  Getting paid a SWE comp to do a minimum wage delivery job and you’re complaining. Ok.
  - lokar 5y ago
    Arguably less then minimum wage
  - anonymousab 5y ago
    When the difference is "get paid well to do the job and career you trained and worked for" vs. "get paid well to do an annoying, stressful frontline job unrelated to your skillset" then yeah, of course you'd complain. One is much better/worse for you than the other. The job sucks, and for most of the people working it, the pay sucks too. To that end, I think a major part of why the job sucks is that the pay sucks - so much hard work for so little reward adds up mentally, and makes every interaction and delivery worse - so they're kinda missing the point with the "build empathy" part if they aren't making only delivery pay while they do this.
    - slenk 5y ago
      Walk in your customers shoes. You'll be surprised what you learn. And yes, fellow employees are your customer.
    - DarylZero 5y ago
      From my perspective, driving around is pleasant enough, as an activity, but the loss of time to do anything else after committing to so many hours, just to make rent... it seems like giving up on life.
  - bluefirebrand 5y ago
    It's not about the money at that point it's about those jobs being shit to do. I can go get my SWE comp elsewhere and not have to do bullshit like that.
- mdoms 5y ago
  And the company could be better off without people who have no interest in building empathy with the most essential workers in their business. So it sounds like a win/win if they get rid of people like you.
  - vgeek 5y ago
    Do you really believe that they are trying to instill camaraderie and mutual respect among their white collar and abused contractor workers, or are they more likely to be have a shortage of delivery contractors and are looking to implement this as a some sort of stopgap or PR piece? I have worked places where myself and fellow office workers have regularly pitched in for things like inventory in the warehouse, but then again the companies I have worked at have not been notoriously abusive with regards to labor and compensation. Coming from a blue collar family and having worked crap jobs prior to college, I never look down on any labor, rather the companies who take advantage. I do look at exploitative companies implementing suspect policies with a cynical perspective. If you don't believe that the gig economy is a shift towards destroying worker's rights and solidarity (how many tech workers are really pro labor? Vs how many anti-union rugged individualists), I'm sorry.
    - mdoms 5y ago
      You think that the most likely explanation is that they like to pay people $200k salaries to deliver food? > If you don't believe that the gig economy is a shift towards destroying worker's rights and solidarity (how many tech workers are really pro labor? Vs how many anti-union rugged individualists), I'm sorry. I absolutely do believe that and I outright refuse to participate in the gig economy. I never use Uber, I never have food delivered, I do not like this. But we're talking about salaried employees being asked to put themselves in the shoes of their users once a month. Let's keep some perspective.
      - dragonwriter 5y ago
        > You think that the most likely explanation is that they like to pay people $200k salaries to deliver food? I think the most likely explanation is some executive who himself lacks sympathy with the vast majority of the classes of people working underneath him read something or had some isolated experience, or both, relating to the utility of the technique, overgeneralized it, and the instituted an overgeneralized, poorly considered, mandate around a broadly-useful concept, rather than initiating an effort to find a way to incorporate it as and where appropriate.

Who would have ever thought that delivering food to lazy people would require a degree and 5 years of JS experience.

by vgeek 5y ago

Who would have ever thought that delivering food to lazy people would require a degree and 5 years of JS experience.

This seems like a really good way to have your employees leave, to me. I've worked retail and food services and delivery jobs. I got into software to never ever have to do that again.

almost_usual 5y ago
Getting paid a SWE comp to do a minimum wage delivery job and you’re complaining. Ok.
- lokar 5y ago
  Arguably less then minimum wage
- anonymousab 5y ago
  When the difference is "get paid well to do the job and career you trained and worked for" vs. "get paid well to do an annoying, stressful frontline job unrelated to your skillset" then yeah, of course you'd complain. One is much better/worse for you than the other. The job sucks, and for most of the people working it, the pay sucks too. To that end, I think a major part of why the job sucks is that the pay sucks - so much hard work for so little reward adds up mentally, and makes every interaction and delivery worse - so they're kinda missing the point with the "build empathy" part if they aren't making only delivery pay while they do this.
  - slenk 5y ago
    Walk in your customers shoes. You'll be surprised what you learn. And yes, fellow employees are your customer.
  - DarylZero 5y ago
    From my perspective, driving around is pleasant enough, as an activity, but the loss of time to do anything else after committing to so many hours, just to make rent... it seems like giving up on life.
- bluefirebrand 5y ago
  It's not about the money at that point it's about those jobs being shit to do. I can go get my SWE comp elsewhere and not have to do bullshit like that.
mdoms 5y ago
And the company could be better off without people who have no interest in building empathy with the most essential workers in their business. So it sounds like a win/win if they get rid of people like you.
- vgeek 5y ago
  Do you really believe that they are trying to instill camaraderie and mutual respect among their white collar and abused contractor workers, or are they more likely to be have a shortage of delivery contractors and are looking to implement this as a some sort of stopgap or PR piece? I have worked places where myself and fellow office workers have regularly pitched in for things like inventory in the warehouse, but then again the companies I have worked at have not been notoriously abusive with regards to labor and compensation. Coming from a blue collar family and having worked crap jobs prior to college, I never look down on any labor, rather the companies who take advantage. I do look at exploitative companies implementing suspect policies with a cynical perspective. If you don't believe that the gig economy is a shift towards destroying worker's rights and solidarity (how many tech workers are really pro labor? Vs how many anti-union rugged individualists), I'm sorry.
  - mdoms 5y ago
    You think that the most likely explanation is that they like to pay people $200k salaries to deliver food? > If you don't believe that the gig economy is a shift towards destroying worker's rights and solidarity (how many tech workers are really pro labor? Vs how many anti-union rugged individualists), I'm sorry. I absolutely do believe that and I outright refuse to participate in the gig economy. I never use Uber, I never have food delivered, I do not like this. But we're talking about salaried employees being asked to put themselves in the shoes of their users once a month. Let's keep some perspective.
    - dragonwriter 5y ago
      > You think that the most likely explanation is that they like to pay people $200k salaries to deliver food? I think the most likely explanation is some executive who himself lacks sympathy with the vast majority of the classes of people working underneath him read something or had some isolated experience, or both, relating to the utility of the technique, overgeneralized it, and the instituted an overgeneralized, poorly considered, mandate around a broadly-useful concept, rather than initiating an effort to find a way to incorporate it as and where appropriate.