Ep. 42 Shauna Pompei (Sr. VP of Human Resources)
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Born in Roseville, CA Shauna Pompei grew up in a house with a mother who dreamt of becoming an opera singer. The house was always full of music, mostly easy listening and movie soundtracks played on the family’s living room console. Shauna’s mother could be heard singing in their house regularly. When The Beach Boys and The Beatles hit, Shauna found herself and her music.

Like a number of women that went on to head up departments at MTS, Inc, Shauna was sent to Tower’s small corporate offices by a temp agency and was interviewed by Tony Valerio. Shauna remembers it well or at least what Tony was wearing; green shades, a white silk shirt with red polka dots, red plaid pants, white shoes and a white belt. Her first job was in the accounting department balancing statements for the indie labels Tower did business with.

Shauna eventually moved over to the Payroll department after an interview with Bud Martin. At the time the department was only five people and they handled Payroll, Benefits and fielding calls from the Employee Complaint line. It was after a particularly ridiculous action by a manager to an employee and the rapid growth of the company. Shauna strongly suggested to Bud Martin and Stan Goman about breaking off into a separate Human Resources department to handle the volume of issues in the stores. Ginny Danielson was the first Manager of the Human Resources Department and Shauna took over when she left. 

In this episode Shauna talks about the various ways her department went about trying to keep the stores compliant, innovative ways to train managers that ended up in the New York Times, successes her department and Tower in general had in the area of HR, having to manage the art at the Main office as harassment free workplaces became integral to the 1990’s, her first concert in 1969 and the status of the 2500 DelMonte Street offices currently.

Join us for a fascinating insight into the inner workings of Tower Records Human Resources and the person who headed up the department the longest, Shauna Pompei.