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 3K21: What Works?

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“Even while we were with you, we gave you this command: “Those unwilling to work will not get to eat.”

It’s been a crazy 17 months since the world shut down in March of 2020.  I don’t have to tell you all that has happened, because we all lived it.  We are still working through the effects of what happens when industries just stop for as long as they did.  The supply chain of raw materials, finished products, etc. is so disrupted right now that just about the time we think we have it under control, another link in the chain isn’t sufficient and everything stalls again.  The most critical supply deficit of all appears to be labor. With so many either deciding to wait to jump back in to work, retiring, or leaving the workforce prematurely, changing industries, etc. just about the time we think we have an industry ready to restart, the people to do the work aren’t there.  This very acute problem will be one that is studied for years to come.  Any incentive to not work is about to be removed so we will see how many return then, or are we experiencing some other major unforeseen shift where our economy has moved beyond our ability to source the labor to support it?

What is our place in this time?  I’ve thought a lot about it and have been trying to put a faith lens on the response.  What I know is that there is no easy answer and that one size does not fit all when it comes to an employee’s return to work.  There was ample enough downtime for so many to reevaluate and reconsider what they want to do for work, where they want to do it, and who they want to do it with.  This has led me to try and be overly compassionate and understanding in this time.  I’ve been listening to people a lot and when I get the chance I want them to know that I care and I want to help them achieve their professional dreams, as much as I can.  But, I have also been forthright that if we have a job, we are expected to do it with full commitment and work to excellence as is we were working for the Lord.  That is the example we can provide to others as we can also count the work we have been given as a gift.

Reference:  2 Thessalonians 3:10 (New Living Translation)