Author Archives: Rusty Rueff

About Rusty Rueff

Rusty Rueff, author of purposed worKING. Rusty Rueff is the former Chairman Emeritus of The GRAMMY Foundation in Los Angeles. He most recently completed the successful 16 month leadership role as Coordinating National Co-Chair for Technology for Obama (T4O) for the reelection of President Obama and ten-years of Board service and President of the Board of Trustees of the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. Corporately, most recently Rueff was the Chief Executive Officer at SNOCAP, Inc. until the acquisition of the company by imeem, Inc. in April 2008. Before joining SNOCAP in 2005, he was Executive Vice President of Human Resources at Electronic Arts (EA) from 1998 until 2005. He was also with the PepsiCo companies for more than ten years, with the Pratt & Whitney division of United Technologies for two years, and in commercial radio as an on-air personality for six years. Rusty holds an M.S. in counseling and a B.A. in radio and television from Purdue University. In 2003 he was named a distinguished Purdue alumnus, and he and his wife, Patti, are the named benefactors of Purdue’s Patti and Rusty Rueff School of Visual and Performing Arts. He is a corporate director of Glassdoor.com and runcoach. He is the co-founder and Executive Committee Member of T4A.org, serves on the Founding Circle of The Centrist Project and a founding Board Member of The GRAMMY Music Education Coalition. He is also the co-author of the book Talent Force: A New Manifesto for the Human Side of Business. Rusty and his wife, Patti, reside in Hillsborough, CA and Charlestown, R.I.

day 2206: Yes, What We Do At Work Matters

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“Do to others whatever you would like them to do to you. This is the essence of all that is taught in the law and the prophets.”

I’ve been writing this blog for nearly nine years now to help us understand the intersection of our work lives and the faith that we carry with us into the world.  The fact that we can bring glory to God in all that we do inspires me daily to explore, write and then try to live it out.  Last week a long-time loyal PwK reader (HT: Tim O) sent me an article that both made me smile and also added seriousness to the topic we explore here Monday through Friday. In a recent weekly address, Pope Francis said this: “Managers who close businesses, shut factories or restructure firms without fully considering the impact on workers and their families are committing a “very grave sin”.  My first reaction was a little of the, “Okay, what does the Pope really know about how to run a business?”.  But, consider that the Catholic Church is one of the largest and most complex organizations in the world with centuries of experience in managing from vision, through intricate hierarchy, to deliver a set of expected results.  And, their church, as we know, has not been without its own failings and organizational crises.  If we really stop and read into what The Pope said, we can where sin can occur.  When we don’t treat others as we would want to be treated and when we don’t do all that w can to fully consider and attempt to mitigate the impact that our actions have on others then we are not telling the truth when we stand behind our stated “well-founded” decisions.  I have a distinct memory of a manager once telling an employee, while in my presence, that the decision to terminate the employee had been reviewed at the highest levels of the function so there wasn’t any reason for the employee to complain or question the decision to his boss.  It’s a common line used in layoffs and job eliminations, but in this case, it wasn’t true. To this day, I wonder if I shouldn’t have spoken out and called the Manager (who was a number of salary grades above me) on his statement.  So, I see where The Pope is coming from.

Let’s consider this as we go into the weekend.  How are we conducting ourselves at work when it comes to both the big and little decisions as they relate to the actions taken that will affect others?  When there are negative or hurting implications, are we doing all that we can to make sure that we are doing the best to balance the needs of the company and the needs of the person and when there is room, ensure we are treating others as we would want (and expect) to be treated?

Reference:  Matthew 7:12 (New Living Translation)