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 1480: Double Shifts

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

If we work in a “white-collar” role, we aren’t often called upon to work a double-shift.  We might think we are doing so when we work up to 12 hours, but it’s not the same as a true double-shift of 16 hours.  16 hours of work with travel back and forth on both ends leaves little rest or anything else before the next day of work. If you have ever worked true double-shifts before you know what I am talking about.  In a summer shipyard welding job I had during college there was one week where I worked four double-shifts in a row.  It was brutal.  Some of these were voluntary, but like most double-shifts that happen for those who are on the clock, some were mandated without prior planning. So, what is supposed to be on the calendar gets cancelled.  Working at the direction of others is not easy as it is, but having one’s hours doubled is always hard to accept. There has been tons of development done to create scheduling and work demand tools and technology, but when it all comes down to it, this type of managing is about whether or not the manager/supervisor wants to schedule like this, or doesn’t.  No piece of technology can replace an attitude or a philosophy.

Not every day is an easy day in our spiritual journey.  Mondays can sometimes be the hardest because we leave the weekend so “up” and committed and then comes the first weekday when we are faced with the same problems, people and obstacles that we left on Friday.  And by Monday night it feels like we have worked our first physical and spiritual double-shift.  But, it’s okay.  We are taught to work for people as willingly as we would for the Lord.  When we do, and we rely on God to bring us through those areas that tend to trick us up or set us back, we are given all that we need to make it through. We just need to receive what God is constantly handing to us to receive.

Reference: Colossians 3:23 (New Living Translation)