My life as an Organisational Hotdog

This is a post about the times that I, a fancy professional evaluation lady, wore costumes in the conduct of my evaluation work.

What I am getting at in this post is the stuff that sits around evaluation practice. Not method and rigour but emotional stuff – how people feel doing evaluation. And power and authority stuff – what we feel we have a right to claim when we take on certain roles. And having fun at work for its own sake.

 The costume-wearing started eight years ago. My aunt bought me a unicorn onesie as a joke. At that time, I was working as an evaluation officer for an organisation that worked in primary schools. I wanted to get more of an understanding of how the kids in a class responded to a program. So the project officer kindly let me come and sit in on some sessions. I asked her if I could wear the unicorn onesie one day. She said yes. The kids lost their minds when they saw me. My interpretation of that day was his: I felt like when I did not wear the costume, the kids looked at me like I was an adult. When I wore the costume, the kids saw me as one of them, I got to experience the program as one of the group. It helped me understand their perspective.

A few months later, the project officer told me that she felt that the presence of a unicorn in the class had been disruptive as the kids were too excited about the presence of the unicorn. This made me think about two things: what I did interfered with understanding the kids’ experience because I created an artificial environment (but evaluations are always an artificial environment?). Also, if you commit to the costume life, you better make sure everyone is on board. But – I would still maintain that the costume made participating in the evaluation a much more enjoyable experience for the kids. (Also, you must combine observation with other data to create a well-rounded evaluation.)

 I used to wear a hotdog costume to staff zoom meetings during the pandemic. I called myself Organisational Hotdog. During a weird time, the team got a laugh out of it, it helped lighten the mood. You get support from unexpected places sometimes. My old boss, a proponent of being professional in the workplace, was an unexpected fan. She said I was breaking down power structures when I put the costume on. She also started addressing me as ‘hot hotty dog’ in emails.

Sometimes as an evaluator I engage with communities where there is a seriousness and gravity given to my role that I prefer did not exist. Sometimes, when the time is right, I bust out my hotdog costume. You have to be strategic about it. I have seen some really hard faces soften at the utter absurdity of this white professional lady making a fool of herself.

 With this post, I have attached a video of me swanning about the Carlton Gardens in a T-Rex costume. This video was filmed by a work colleague from my last job (who did great camera work). This video was made for no reason and exists for no reason. It is silly and fun.