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 919: Separation Packages

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“And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love.”

 I received a call last week asking me my opinion on what was considered a “fair” separation package for someone who was being let go from their position.  As I sat back and thought about it, I was surprised that after generations and lifetimes of being in business that certain lessons have to be learned over and over again. So, here we stand in 2012 with a new generation asking the question about what is a fair separation package.  My answer, “There is not one standard and one size does not fill all…one size fits one.”  That was not at all comforting to the person asking.  He wanted a formula or some industry norm that he could stand on (or more like hide behind in this case).  Sure, there are those examples and things to look upon to assist in making this decision, but I’ve never seen it that a formula or policy has left everyone feeling like things have been handled fairly.  Inevitably, some will feel like it is great and others paltry.  So, the answer lies in ensuring that we understand the full set of circumstances that brought us to the decision with the person being affected.  This is the time to go the extra mile and dig deep because nothing may be scarier to any of us than to be separated.  We are best served by being very thoughtful, graceful and generous when it comes to putting together separation packages.

When you ask someone to describe the times that were most frightening for them in their childhood, inevitably a story is told of either being lost or separated from their parents in a store, a parking lot, in the woods, etc.  The same can be said of parents who have been separated from their children and for those few minutes when they think they “lost” their child in the mall, on a beach, or at a park, there is no other time that is more frightening.  No one ever forgets these moments and stories. Let’s face it, we are terrified of being separated from our loved ones and the things in life that we have come to count on like our jobs and careers, which end up being a large part of our self-esteem and self-worth.  So, if we know our natural tendencies then we should be able to be 100% assured and without fear that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love.  It is undeniable and without any reservation that He will always be there for us.  Let us remember that there is no separation package awaiting us if we believe in what He has done for us to bring us our salvation.

Reference: Romans 8:38 (New Living Translation)