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Fun In The Work Place: The Orange Award
Submitted by Anne Chabot, Tichenor/Trane RA, Ball State University
It has escalated to the point that residents are asking the RAs the same question every Tuesday night, "Who got the orange this week? What for?"
During our SSO (Student Staff Orientation), many of the different complexes on campus were wearing matching shirts or hats or something similar.
Our RA staff was poor so we couldn't afford to get anything elaborate so we did the college thing...we went to Good Will. Great store. I was skeptical as to whether we would find nine matching things (7 RAs and 2 Hall Directors), but the others reassured me that you could get anything at Good Will, even nine matching things.
Well, we found seven old aprons with oranges on them, one with lemons, and one kneeling pad in the shape of an orange, perfectly matching the ones on our aprons. We gave our hall director the orange, and he wore like it was a huge diamond necklace. We got a lot of compliments and the orange became a signature thing. So we had to use it the rest of the year for something.
At the end of our staff meetings every Tuesday night, we nominate each other for the orange. We vote on whom it was that did the stupidest or craziest thing in the past week. This encourages honesty (since we also nominate ourselves) and gives us a chance to laugh with and at ourselves. Whoever wins the orange has to write what they did somewhere on the orange and wear it PROUDLY to Hall Council that night and at the desk during the week. We have quite a few interesting things written on it now.
It helps remind us that we're human and also remind the residents that we're just like them. Most of all, it gives us something to look forward to and talk about.