Most undervalued job

[geeknerd99]

SORRY, LATE NIGHT POST. (I shot photos of 5 soccer games an hour away today. It's been a long day, but this is a topic I'd really like to share my thoughts about)

Originally Posted by Rapt0r9

Probably electrical.

(omitted for space considerations)

During competition one of the mentors would yell to him, "Is electrical done yet?" evey three minutes. He had a assortment of repsonses, but the one I remember was, "Mechanicall had 400 hours, we have 4."

Mentors: "How's the electrical team doing so far?"

Me: "We can't really wire the robot up if we don't have a robot to work on"

Mentor: "You always say that. Have you guys accomplished anything else?"

Laura: "Yeah. We redesigned the electronics board, AGAIN, since you guys redesigned the frame. AGAIN."

(this marked the 7th or 8th time we'd redesigned it, wire layouts and everything)

Sometimes, I really feel that the people that are truly devoted to the team are the ones most undervalued. This includes me and my electronics/programming team, and everyone else in the computer lab, which includes the CAD people (oh, are they useful, I can't thank them enough), and the animators. Alright, so I still don't really see the point in doing the animation, but still, they put in A LOT of work this year. I just don't reall get how it fits in with the rest of our team.

While we're on the topic of undervaluing things, I really feel that a recurring problem on teams is the mechanical guys not appreciating the rest of the team. Like, on the Saturday before ship, the entire electrical and CAD/Animation teams showed up bright and early at 8AM, after about a 20 minute drive for many of us, and the first shreds of the rest of the team showed up at 2PM. No joke. I don't think I've ever been more pissed at my teammates than that day before. I guess it was the following tidbit that set me off:

Mentor: "So, what electrical stuff did you guys accomplish?"

Me : "Actually, we had to pull everyone even from CAD and animation to help build the robot, since we have to have a robot to work on first. Where on earth were you guys?" (Note that this quote has been translated to a more CD-friendly version)

Mentor: "Sleeping!" (In this I-Don't-Care-That-We-Ship-Out-Tuesday manner)

Me:

And one last bit before I go to bed (I'm really just rambling here, bear with me), I really hate the people that don't show up the entire build season, maybe turn a few screws with a few days before ship, and then think they can drive the robot better than the team-leadership designated drive team. Especially considering that this year we ran mecanum. Driving is hard work. It's fun, but it's also no fun when the entire team blames you for failure. People with the ambition that Oooh! Me! I wanna drive! usually don't realize this.

I choose to accept the role as driver not because it's like a real-live video game that I really wanna play. I drive because a part of my soul is in that robot, a part that apparently the leadership recognized as strong potential. Believe me. If I wasn't recommended to drive (or the best driver, or the person that designed everything related to the driving, for that matter), I wouldn't drive on field unless someone had a gun to my head. Sometimes it's great, but it's actually more depressing than fun.

Alright, sleepy time.

Long story short: Most undervalued people: CAD, animators, and programming/electrical. Most undervaluing people: the people that claim to "build" the robot as their job (isn't it everyone's job?) and the people that never show up/do anything.