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 46: It Should Have Been Me!

purposed worKING No Comments

You were passed over for the big promotion. You didn’t get to go on the business trip. The project was given to someone else. The sales territory was split up and you lost out on the best accounts. The boss just pays way more attention to others than to you. You have been in the same position much longer than everyone else. You are sure that you make less money than everyone else at your level. How many of these are real and how many are just “work ghosts” that keep showing up and tormenting you? What are these all about? At the root, it is easy to be jealous and envious at work. The whole system is set up to pit one person against another where someone wins and someone is left out, passed by or just the loser. We are not to be envious or jealous. Both of these are emotions that can get in between our relationship with God. We are to do whatever we need to do to not allow ourselves to slip into these states or mind. The Proverbs tell us how bad this can be as jealousy is described as “cancer in the bones”. I have never known anyone who has had bone cancer but I am told that it is one of the most painful of all cancers with every move putting pressure and strain on one’s bones. It is not a pretty picture. In the same verse, we are also told that a removal of those things in our heart that does not promote peace and allows for our hearts to be peaceful, that we can expect a healthy body in return. As we look at the things at work that we find ourselves feeling jealous or envious about, we need to do what we can to remove these instigators and replace them with those thoughts and things that can promote a peaceful heart. Today, call on God to show you the things in work that are getting under your skin and ask Him for His help to put these aside as the unimportant things in life.

Reference: Proverbs 14:30 (New Living Testament)