Do you get blamed for every thing one your team!!!

[Billfred]

In my experience, I have seen blame-shifts on 1293 very rarely, if ever.

However, the moment any loud crashing noise is heard, three words can often be heard...

Originally Posted by Mr. Orr, Billfred, Adam, and pretty much anyone else

Have that removed!

(see, kids? you learn more than building robots in FIRST--you also learn how to be smooth.)

[Ted Boucher]

Mistakes can always be made while participating in robotics, and there is no way to change that.

The reason you are on a robotics team is to learn. No one is perfect and you are better off realizing that you have made the mistake, than shifting the blame to someone else. The more mistakes you make or hear about being made, the more you learn. Many are quick to blame a newbie for a problem; this is only hurting the persons enjoyment in FIRST and can be extremely counter productive.

I have to admit that I get blamed for a lot that goes wrong at competitions…. and I have learned to accept that. I would rather move on and correct the fault than stand around and fight about an insignificant problem.

Mistakes are never made by one person alone and many people forget that. You need to work on a system to prevent mistakes from happening, making a better and safer work environment.

So you made a mistake….. You live and you learn.

[Kyle]

I am a third year member of MOE and I still make mistakes every meeting, I would like to accept the blame but I usually try to run and hide so someone else catches the heat. Joking I don't do that.


Like many others in this thread have said so far is everyone makes mistakes and they should get the blame due to them, some people make more mistakes then others but they are not just mistakes they are learning experiences.

[Arefin Bari]

Alright lets face it...

I understand that rookies aren't on the same level as veterans on the team. But the rookies come up with amazing stuff (I have seen it happening), they amaze me at times. Yes, at times we do yell at them (fine most of the time), but at the same time, we do respect what they had to say as we would respect any other member on the team. If they are wrong, us veterans always try to show them the right path.

Rookies... dont feel bad. Its learning time. This is the best experience you will ever get. When a veteran on the team let you down, dont give up, because you are the future of the team. If you have questions about anything, ask your veteran members on the team or the mentors, they will help you out.

the whole "yeling at freshmen" has been a tradition, it doesnt mean that we hate freshmen.

... enough said

-Arefin.

[Goober!!!]

yes newbies learn but over the time perod i have been blamed on alot of things not all but a few like today i herd this quote milloions of times " Blame it on The Goober!!!"
not a lie!!!

[Goober!!!]

millions*

[Embok]

I am a programmer, of course I do.

[408Oxidation]

Personally, we blame the programmers.
However, yesterday someone else took all the blame, after all it was their fault.
Condensed story:
Alignment on wheels was off, so I was holding onto the robot. Told the certain person to move the slider a little down, they put it all the way up. Robot dragged me across the room, into a wall, then the person over-compensated, and the robot reversed, pushing me the other way.
It was an... interesting.... day. Needless to say that person was blamed for the rest of the day, especially when the chain ripped off, ripped through the plexiglass our electrical was mounted on, and broke one of the spikes that I was then forced to repair.

[shyra1353]

Mistakes are all part of learning .. everyone makes them .. whether it is your first year on the team or your fourth year on the team .. like my mentor said the other day "hindsight is always 20/20" and that works for both mentors, freshmen, and seniors.

I'm a senior and I make loads of mistakes but at the same time I also learn from those mistakes and the younger ones on the team know not to do what I did .. so while I learn from my own mistakes, so do others. Sure freshmen make more mistakes than others, but the biggest mistake a senior can make is not teaching a freshman what they did wrong. If you don't do that then they will never learn and next year when you are gone they will do the same thing.

The important thing to remember is that you are a team and in the end it is no single person's fault.

[kayla13]

Originally Posted by shyra1353

Mistakes are all part of learning .. everyone makes them .. whether it is your first year on the team or your fourth year on the team .. like my mentor said the other day "hindsight is always 20/20" and that works for both mentors, freshmen, and seniors.

I'm a senior and I make loads of mistakes but at the same time I also learn from those mistakes and the younger ones on the team know not to do what I did .. so while I learn from my own mistakes, so do others. Sure freshmen make more mistakes than others, but the biggest mistake a senior can make is not teaching a freshman what they did wrong. If you don't do that then they will never learn and next year when you are gone they will do the same thing.

The important thing to remember is that you are a team and in the end it is no single person's fault.

Aww.... Shyra that is so sweet. LOL I'm am one of those freshmans on you're team lol i really do try to not make many mistakes! you are a great person and a great leader I think everyone on team 771 will miss you next year!

[tiffany34990]

we don't really blame the newbies-- we used to blame on guy for everything it was always seth did it, seth's fault--he has graduated in 04 but those of us that knew him still at time say it's seth's fault and we also say it's gilligan's fault just because..always someone to blame for the sillest things basically
-not being mean of course just having fun especially when it's late and you have been working all day long

[greencactus3]

we just blame it on zahid. who i havent seen for a while since he graduated last year. doesnt matter if he's touched or even seen the robot or not. its his fault. no argueing,

[angelc24]

I don't really do actual mechanical work because I am an absolute klutz but out of the 7 programmers, the 2 seniors quit, 1 junior never comes and one has never programmed before and the rest of us are rookies. Only one of us actually had background in C so really all of us were programming rookies. Fortunately for us, since the mechanical teams had a small problem getting the arm and drive train built, most of the problems were based on electronics; we just found them. This made debugging horrible because we would fix our problem and they would spend 1- 2 hours fixing theirs. So, on my team, instead of blame it on the rookies it's blame it on electronics.

[riboSquirrel]

Originally Posted by Goober!!!

for the new guys and girls on you team do you get blamed for every mistake???

YES!!!! the thing i hear the most is "OH... now you gon an' dun it squirrel(reilly) !!!!*giggles*"

[KenWittlief]

mistakes (or the proper engineering term: bugs) is something you will deal with for the rest of your life if you are an engineer.

You have to develop a new way of thinking:

1. the only way you can completely avoid making any mistakes is to do nothing all the time. Unfortunately its hard to find someone to pay you money to do nothing.

2. When you are designing and fabricating a system, mistakes (bugs) are expected! This is why we have test equipment in the lab (lots of expensive test equipment), an acceptance test procedure that makes sure the system does everything it is suppose to do, and a manufacturing test procedure to make sure that each unit built is correctly fabricated and assembled.

3. Trying to create a design and assembly process in which no mistakes EVER make it out the door results in super-high quality AND super-high prices (think $900 AirForce Hammer)

4. when you are in the design phase you try to avoid mistakes (bugs), by having design reviews and checklists for each step of the project.

5. after you assemble a prototype you try to FIND mistakes (bugs) by testing testing and more testing. At this point bugs are golden because finding them keeps defective product from going out the door, and it lets you go back and see where the bug was introduced in the design of the product, so you dont keep making the same mistakes over and over.

With all this said, the idea of making mistakes is very different to engineers than it is with most people. We dont attach our egos to our work. If we make a mistake its not because we are stupid, or not trying hard enough, or we dont know what we are doing

its because we are engineers, and engineers venture into unknown territory BOLDLY, doing things no one has ever done before.

BTW, a good example of this "new way of thinking" is what happens at design reviews. When we review another engineers work we NEVER say anything about the designer, only about the design. If you find a mistake you dont say "whoa, this is stupid, what were you thinking?" we say: this doesnt look right to me, I think you need something more like this......"

Once you contribute something to a design or fabrication, its not 'you' anymore, its the design, its the system. Personal performance reviews are separate, held behind closed doors with your manager, not infront of all your co-workers. An even then, a good engineering manager will never say "you dont seem to know what you are doing", or "you do a lot of stupid things". Performance reviews say focused on the quality of your work, and things you can do (training, etc) to improve your performance.