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 3K151: Take A Vacation!

purposed worKING No Comments

“He told them, “This is what the Lord commanded: Tomorrow will be a day of complete rest, a holy Sabbath day set apart for the Lord.”

It’s taken a Pandemic, a Great Resignation, a move to Remote Work and a Talent Shortage to shift the thinking on what is vacation time and who should take it and when.  Apparently, Goldman Sachs has seen a new light and are boldly changing how they think about vacation time.  This is from an article in Quartz: “Goldman instated its new holiday policies in April, according to an internal memo seen by Quartz. It mandated unlimited vacation for senior staff, defined as all partners and managing directors globally, effective this month. And starting next year, all staff, including senior executives, will be required to take at least 15 days of holiday annually, including at least one week of consecutive days off.”  Goldman Sachs has made the decision that to be most effective and productive we need to have downtime and away time.  Real down and real away, not just a few hours here and there. Will others follow suit?  Hard to tell, but an organization that I am involved with just approved dedicated extra time away for its Executive Director to focus on total wellness (mind, body and spirit) once a quarter.  Work is by nature, hard and for so long we have haven’t really paid much attention to the rest that is needed to work at our best.

We are taught to observe the Sabbath.  We need a rest too from the world that is constantly challenging and pushing at us.  A day of rest was created for us, but are we using it?  And, are we using it wisely?  When was the last time we really and truly observed a Sabbath?  If we are struggling today with patience, grace, calmness, positive thoughts and moods, it may be that God is tell us to follow His directions and find our Sabbath time!

Reference: Exodus 16:23 (New Living Translation)