“You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to PayneTrain again.”
Seriously, though, I’ve been involved in FIRST in various contexts as a student and mentor for 7 years now and I have NEVER heard of the Non-Medical Incident Report. Seems like a very important thing to be so hidden.
Edit to add this:
We’ve all struggled with this. I’ll admit that I’ve had an outburst that I’m not proud of. However, I don’t think that’s an excuse. Searching for ways to “fix it” doesn’t necessitate a poor attitude; in fact, a poor attitude will generally inhibit your ability to “fix it.” I won’t deny that the stress can get to your head, and it will affect your behavior, but when that happens, an apology is in order. The problem here is that those apologies don’t seem to be happening.
the point isn’t for some one to make excuses for their own bad behavior. It’s for those on the receiving end to move past it, to be gracious professionals in that situation. While apologies are great, if you expect them from everyone that looses their head, you are going to come up sorely disappointed. The problem isn’t about the apologies. It’s about the expectations we place on strangers behaviours.
OK, I’ll admit to a second snarky reaction to “non GP” mentor behaviour. I fully acknowledge that my response may not have been exactly gracious or professional either.
We were loading in at one of our events and there was, for some reason, a few vans and trucks had parked end-to-end in the space for an 18-wheeler trailer to park at the loading dock. So I’ve got my dolly with a few totes and a stack of foam “puzzle piece” tiles for our pit floor, and I’m working my way down the narrow corridor beside this line of vehicles so I can get to the freight elevator.
I am passing a pickup truck as my dolly hits a bump and my stack of foam tiles begins to tip a little and fall over. I catch it, it was nowhere near in danger of falling but the truck’s owner comes out and begins swearing and yelling about how lucky I am that I didn’t damage his truck because golly gee, if I had, there would be heck to pay and boy did I ever not want that to happen…
I literally stopped in my tracks to think about what my response would be.
Option 1: “What team are you with? I’ll be sure to tell my scouts about this wonderful first impression.”
Option 2: “Very sorry sir, I’ll make sure these squishy foam tiles don’t go anywhere near your truck even though you’ve blocked 90% of the loading lane.”
Option 3: “You know, it’s not my squishy foam tiles you need to be worried about, it’s that line of people behind me…” *gesture to people barreling toward us with 500-lb toolboxes, robot carts, robots with sharp aluminum edges, …
GP’s been kicked around since it was first coined by Dr. Flowers. Like him, it is pretty tough. It can handle misinterpretations and misuse. Especially if enough FIRSTers understand and implement its true purpose.
I don’t disagree with this, and I agree that some patience goes a long way. After all, you’re right- we are all stressed out and sleep-deprived. I don’t expect apologies left and right just because people get stressed out. However, I believe it’s important to maintain an environment where it’s clear that that kind of behavior isn’t normal, and isn’t acceptable. There’s a line between patience in the moment, and tolerance of a common behavior, and situations like this can cross that line if mishandled.
I can agree there… but I was thinking of the opposite view point. What if they think what you are doing is being an ********?
What if they say “Can you do x for me?” and you can’t or your time doesn’t allow it. Are you being a Walter for that reason? (I don’t think so, but in their mind you may be and thus the thought that you aren’t being GP.)
If you tell them (calmly, etc.) that you are unable or you don’t have the time, then I don’t think you would be a Walter. At that point if they flip, who’s the Walter?
