Mentors: How does your company support you?

[Chris Hibner]

My experience has run the gamut of support and lack thereof.

My first 8 years in FIRST were with team 308. I worked for the team sponsor, which allowed paid days off for the competitions. However, most direct managers really disliked their employees taking the time off.

My most recent 8 years have been with team 65 then 51. During that time I worked for the sponsor for 8 months. During that 8 months, I was a contract employee without vacation so I had to take unpaid leave to attend events.

The other 7 years and 4 months with 65/51 was complicated. 4 of those years I was piloting airplanes for a living. Due to the whacky schedule associated with that job I was either able to get the days off by bidding my schedule to have the time off or else I just had to miss the competitions.

The remaining 3+ years I've had to use my vacation time to attend competitions. Last year that amounted to me spending 2.5 weeks of vacation on FIRST. That's not going to happen again this year - I need a real vacation.