Being forced to do a low-level job for a somewhat extended period that is probably not directly to your day-to-day is a bit much. However, depending on the situation/company etc., having employees work support or otherwise put themselves in the shoes of people using the products they're involved with making every now and then shouldn't be something they view as beneath them.
Not beneath me, but I do value using my time as optimally as possible. Maybe a week of customer support once in life or few years would be great, but why should I choose a company that forces me to spend my time unwisely? It is not about being beneath me. I just want to solve problems programmatically, not be customer support. You know engineers can not be forced either, they can leave any time due to market demand so good luck to anyone trying to make their employees do something like that.
I’m honestly not sure of the value of spending time in first line customer support. I would note though that, at least in companies in enterprise sales, engineers are very commonly in the ultimate escalation path, expected to help in sales situations as needed, and do other things related to retaking customers and gaining new ones. Senior engineers are also often expected to be a face of the company in a variety of ways.
Also having just a week spent in customer support might create biases because your customers had this time these specific issues. Analyzing those issues and understanding what is actually important requires a broader view and analyzing all the tickets etc
Are you saying we should not do video platforms at all?
Also moderation is not the only bad job in the industry or life in general. Why should we specifically rotate on moderation? Why not cleaning after old people, plumbing anything else you can think of that might be gross or mentally dangerous to do?
Moderation is only a minor factor of all the implications of this job.
(Something I'd commented on at the time. YouTube are absolutely culpable.)
If the job has to be done -- and I'd put healthcare, garbage collection, policework, and military service among those -- you take all reasonable efforts to minimise risks, especially unnecessary ones, and support those who've become disabled through them. That's the principle argument for veterans healthcare, and an exceptionally sound one.
There are of course many instances of work under hazadous conditions not properly compensated. A few off the top of my head:
- Workers in lead-related facilities: mining, smelting, fuel production, paint, and printing. (I'm excluding resulting environmental contamination, that's also an issue, but not workers.)
Spinning up a platform for cat videos and pratfalls with no larger social conscience is not excusable.
(Yes, there's good content on YouTube, and I rely on it myself. I'm aware of the costs. And I'm aware that many proposed alternatives, including peer-to-peer systems, would or do face similar issues.)
Of course you should minimize the risks, but what we are debating about is whether employees should be forced to do that job on rotation. In reality this is something that should be regulated legally so the company would be legally required to provide appropriate amount of assistance/support to the moderators.
