DoorDash will require all employees to deliver goods or perform other gigs, and some of them aren’t happy

Levi Sumagaysay -

All DoorDash Inc. employees, from software engineers up to the chief executive, will have to perform deliveries or maybe shadow a customer-service agent once a month starting next year — and some of them aren’t happy about it.




DoorDash confirmed Thursday that it told employees this week it is reinstating the program, called WeDash, in January. The company said it has had the program since its inception and in 2018 tied it to a philanthropic effort to address hunger and food waste, but put it on hold because of the pandemic.

The renewed push adds choices for employees who may not be able to do deliveries, a spokeswoman said. Besides WeSupport, which will allow employees to shadow customer-service workers, the company will also eventually offer WeMerchant, a way for employees to take a closer look at the merchant-support side of DoorDash’s business.

On Blind, an app that lets employees post anonymously, a thread about the delivery requirement has about 1,500 comments. The post, which is titled “DoorDash making engineers deliver food,” includes profanity and statements such as “I didn’t sign up for this, there was nothing in the offer letter/job description about this.”

Others responding to the post said it was a good way for engineers to see how their work affects customers and merchants, and possibly to “empathize” with lower-paid delivery workers. Other commenters said their companies have also required white-collar employees to step into the shoes of their companies’ hourly workers once in a while.

A Blind spokesman said Thursday the company can confirm the post was written by a DoorDash employee, because Blind requires users to sign up using their work email addresses. The DoorDash spokeswoman said the complaints on Blind don’t reflect the sentiment of the company’s employees at large.

DoorDash said it was reinstating the program because it wants employees to understand the challenges and problems in its business and help solve them.

The money employees earn from doing deliveries will be donated to nonprofits, according to the company.