Employees in service-oriented, relationship-based jobs are prone to experiencing feelings of burnout. As such, paraprofessional staff in college housing environments, resident assistants (RAs), are not immune to its effects. Since navigating relationships is the root cause of burnout, it makes sense to focus on the relationships between…

The multidimensional role of entry-level, live-in residence life and housing staff has grown even more complex in recent years. These staff members, often referred to as resident directors, are frequently asked to go beyond the role of RA supervisor, community builder, and policy enforcer. Now they also serve to support students with significant…

Housing and residence life professionals help students through crises and traumatic events, which may affect their own well-being. Members of higher education student affairs professional organizations, including ACUHO-I, were surveyed to investigate the following relationships: (1) work factors (i.e., job demands, job resources, exposure to…

Campus crisis responders are critical to ensuring the safety of students on a college campus. However, attrition in student affairs and specifically in the field of residence life (the department that most professionals that serve in an on-call rotation would fall under), continues to be a concern (Marshall et al., 2016). I assert that burnout of…

Objective: The purpose of this viewpoint is to discuss the lack of research on resident advisor (RA) self-care and how behavioral interventions can be used in housing programs to educate and improve RA self-care. It is essential for live-in housing staff (both professional and paraprofessional) to learn how to develop appropriate strategies that…

Live-in college residential life positions often involve extensive and diverse responsibilities including the support of residential students experiencing traumatic life events. While live-in staff undergo extensive training in regard to supporting these students, they are often ill-equipped to understand and prevent potential negative…

The current study investigated the relationship between supervision, job satisfaction, and burnout among "live-in" and "live-on" Housing and Residence Life professionals. The literature review consists of empirical research for each construct presented (supervision, job satisfaction, and burnout). The study sample consisted of…

Resident Assistants (RAs) are often faced with working and living among residents who are struggling, in distress, and, at times, in crisis. This article provides a primer on identifying residents in crisis as well as the tasks faced when working with students in transition and crisis. A discussion of the prevalence of distress reported by…

The purpose of this study was to identify the competencies important for success in entry-level residence life positions. The literature suggests that student affairs professionals must ascertain which skills require further development in order to identify professional development activities that will increase proficiency and improve overall…

The "Talking Stick" is published bimonthly, six times a year in January/February, March/April, May/June, July/August, September/October, and November/December by the Association of College and University Housing Officers-International. Each issue is divided into three sections: Features, Columns, and Departments. These sections contain…