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 3K230: The Gifts Of Work – An Hour Well Worked

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“Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people.”

There is a gift in the hours we are able to work.  Here in the U.S. we take for granted the 40-hour work week as a standard, but that has not always been true.  Before the Industrial Revolution the only hours that we needed to work were enough to feed ourselves with food, water and to have things to trade for more that could feed and shelter us.  Thus, it was very individualized and could have been only a few hours a day.  When our efforts moved into factories the common workweek went over 70 hours a week with only one day off, to go to church and honor a Sabbath. By 1890 the U.S. Government released reports of people who worked in manufacturing plants being on the assembly line over 100 hours a week.  That was the average, so imagine what the top of the scale was?  It was Henry Ford who led the way for a 40-hour workweek in 1926 that spanned only 5 days in the week.  He was a smart person in that he created a work standard that benefited employees and his company at the same time.  He wrote this: “Just as the eight-hour day opened our way to prosperity in America, so the five-day workweek will open our way to still greater prosperity.”  And then he did something crazy at the time and gave everyone a minimum of $5/day so they could afford to buy one of the cars they built.  Henry Ford knew that with the right balance of hours and wages that any hour spent at work could also be a gift.  And it is today too.  When we don’t think it is, think of those around the globe who would give anything to be able to work.

God gave us the talents to make an hour of work more than just a duty or drudgery.  In fact, the hours we put in today is a gift.  If it wasn’t then might the talents, skills, knowledge that we have, not been given to us.  Let’s be appreciative and then do something willingly with our work to bring glory to Him!

Reference: Colossians 3:23 (New Living Translation)