Freshmen in an orientation course at a state university answered questionnaires about their peer mentors' playful communication and about how well their peer mentors help them ease tensions of socialization. Results showed that a mentor's perceived playful communication helped the protege ease tensions of socialization. Proteges liked mentors who engaged in playful communication, but regression results suggest that it was proteges' perceptions of the mentors' playful communication that helped proteges adapt to the organization and not the proteges' perceptions of their mentors' attitudes.