[XaulZan11]

I've been thinking about starting a thread proposing a FIRST 'enforced' cap on work hours during buildseason. I'm a big believer (although not always a follower) on the idea of balance in life. As several has stated, having an unbalanced life (or 6 weeks) for FIRST and school is not healthy. I've heard stories/rumors of teams working past midnight on school nights and working over 40 hours a week (on top of school/job). I do not see how students can come close to the recommened 8 hours of sleep a night and complete their homework and fulfill their social needs. It is just not healthy.

What is the causes teams to work soo long and hard? I think it has to do building a competitive robot and competing with the elite teams. I suspect that the time committment has increased throughout the years. In order to compete with the elite teams that spend a ton of time working, you also have to spend a ton of time working. Those elite teams, who want to keep their edge, work harder and longer. Eventually, everyone is working an unhealthy amount.

Why not cap the amount of time to, say, 30 hours a week and no later than 10PM on school nights? Will students be less inspired? Will fewer mentors get burned out and thus stay with the program longer? FIRST already gives us restrictions to the size and weight of the robot, why not restrict how long we can work on the robot? I believe the NCAA has limits the amount of time football teams can practice, so the practice is not unheard of. Additionally, atleast in Wisconsin, minors cannot work more than some limit of hours per week or past some hour on school nights, during the school year.


I'm not sure if I would support a rule that limits the amount of time a team can work on a robot, but I think it certainly has its advantages; mainly it is more healthy for the students, probably will not result in less-inspiration, and will increase the likelyhood of mentors sticking with FIRST.