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 1036: Holiday Parties

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“So I concluded there is nothing better than to be happy and enjoy ourselves as long as we can.”

Tonight is the prime night for seasonal holiday office parties.  All across the country today there will be assistants and event planners getting ready for the “big night”.  For some, it is the event of the year and they are excited about dressing up and having a night out without the kids.  For others, going to the annual party is a requirement and they dread having to attend.  But, all the same, it is great for people to get together outside of work and to share some good time together.  Each time this year, we can read also about the career  warnings of the annual parties and what behaviors are accepted and which are not.  Inevitably there will be that one person who has too much of the fun and ends up with an appointment with HR on Monday.  I was once taught that nothing good in our careers happens after 9:00pm.  I think this rings very true for the holiday party, or for any party outside of work when co-workers are in attendance.

God has given us this life to enjoy and be happy, but there is a bright line that we as believers must know and hold when it comes to the fun in this life.  At the holiday party, there will be others watching to see how we behave and handle ourselves when the party starts.  Of course, we can have fun, but if we stray from our self-control and act in a way that is unfitting of the example that we work so diligently each day to build and maintain, then we not only let ourselves and God down, but we run the risk of causing someone else who has been watching and evaluating whether or not this life is for them, to turn away and be jaded and cynical about what it means to be a believer.  So, have fun but also remember that tonight’s celebration and this season is about the birth of Jesus and that we are at His birthday party.  How would we celebrate if He was in attendance?

Reference: Ecclesiastes 3:12 (New Living Translation)