Em's Letter ~ Situationsss Vacant 05.03.25

Me:

Liv (Head of Marketing) and Ali (Head of Retail), who both started with us at university, and have been with us for 8 years, will be spreading their wings to distant lands.

The plan has been in work for some time, but it’s surreal to be sitting at my computer and actually tapping to you all about it.

Because their knowledge of RUBY runs so deep and so wide, doing a straight up 1-for-1 replacements is just not going to cut it. So, we’ve added a sparkly new role: HR Business Partner.

(I gotta say, writing the HR Business Partner’s JD was like writing a letter to Santa: I want someone who can host a totally excellent party, run a restructure, and develop the Glimmers in our team. AND I want a pony!)

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You may be simply shocked to hear that the leadership of the RUBY team is not a one-person exercise. The roles we are recruiting for are to be part of our senior leadership team, and they will work closely with myself, Deanna (Creative Director) and Anna-Lise (Sales and Marketing Director). AKA The Trio.

Please enjoy the photo of us all wearing blue, and with matching hairstyles that Emma, our Art Director took just before.

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What’s it like working at RUBY? I can only answer from my experience, and what I strive every day to facilitate.

To explain, I’m going to use some of our internal lingo. Which btw I was explaining to a friend who works in a vastly different industry, and they were like “yeah, if I introduced terms like that no one would take me seriously”. Which, lol, because in our jobs we can be grown up AND be silly?

This is now at the top of our job descriptions, which let’s face it is a step up from “~GOOD VIBE~”

HAVE FUN

Firstly, making clothes is fucking fun. Playing with a panel seam, or where to put the grainline? That’s fun. And then there’s colours, shapes and textures we get to muck around with.

I think our clothes bring fun to our Rubette’s days. A lil’ something something on your work blouse. A beautiful blue gown for your ball, a kind of kooky stripe on your winter jumper.

But the actual MAKING of clothes is only a part of the work we do as a team. Yup there’s the classic things to point to: social club, parties, our newly formed social netball team (GO RU-BALLERS!). But really it’s that we have fun with our work. From the names we give to our internal strategies, the long-running jokes (THE CRIME SPREE CONTINUES), to mucking around with a new way of formatting a data file or scouting a tiny bakery with the coolest floors in the world and begging them to let us shoot there. Honestly, it’s fun.

Its gotta be, we work bloody hard.

MAKE MONEY

Newsflash: we are a business, and we have a responsibility to our team and stakeholders to be profitable. Not sure about you, but my supermarket shopping can’t be paid for in “fun”.

Honestly, given economic conditions, the state of the industry, and global factors, it isn’t always easy. This is what makes “HAVE FUN” so important.

CONTRIBUTE WISELY

Externally this means our contributions to our wider community through (for example) our work with MFNZ, donations of our time or resource to charity, mentoring small businesses, or hosting fundraising events.

Internally this means: Family First. We are committed to providing the best framework we can so that our team members can thrive.

Growing up, my parents would often need to remind me that I couldn’t solve the world’s problems. This is where the “WISELY” part is important. We can’t be everything to everyone, but I am honest when I say that we do what we reasonably can.

We really, really care about what we do. I think through practise, I have learned not to feel actually pained when something doesn’t go as it should have, or I hoped. Kind of like when your end-of-summer foot steps on a stone.

Sounds dramatic? Maybe. Not everyone in the team is swimming as deep in the Kool-Aid as I am, but we are a bunch of high achievers who do care deeply about what we do.

And then there are our communities. Of which there are many. They are where we come from, where we belong, and where we serve. The care we feel for our work is the same as the care we feel for our community.

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2028 will mark 20 years (YEAHS!?) of Deanna and I’s reign at RUBY. I’m super excited to see who will be joining the 3. WORKS HARD, KNOWS HOW TO PARTY train with us.

What’s it like working with me? The best way to answer that after a long day and a couple of wines, I wondered out loud how I would answer the classic job interview question “how would someone who knows you well describe you?”. Anna-Lise quite quickly (too quickly?) replied:

“Full on. Good though”

X

Em