Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group’s Vice President of Corporate Services & General Counsel, Stephanie Spruston never knows what to expect when she sits down at her desk every morning.

Responsible for the Corporate Services group, the legal and HR department for OSEG, Spruston also deals with the profit and loss on the entertainment side of the business.

“My day-to-day is a bit of a mixed bag,” Spruston said of her duties. “I could be looking at commercial agreements one minute, the next dealing with the City for Lansdowne 2.0, and sorting through some HR issues or implementations before the end of the day. I do a little bit of everything.”

Spruston says two of her best memories in her 11 years at OSEG come because of the team, but not the ones on the field, or the ice. Yes, seeing the Ottawa Fury and 67’s compete for a NASL and OHL title respectively, was amazing, and seeing the REDBLACKS hoist the Grey Cup in 2016 was an unforgettable experience, but other things hold larger spots in her heart.

Hours before AC/DC was scheduled to take the stage, she recalls an SOS call going out, due to a storm that halted workers from preparing the stadium the previous day. Everyone, regardless of their role, soon turned up and began setting up chairs before the show went off without a hitch.

Another such story came during the 2017 Grey Cup, when staffers stood passing buckets of food up the temporary stands in the east endzone in the freezing cold weather. On both occasions, no one complained, powering through to ensure fans had the best experience they possibly could, regardless of their job description.

With her hands in so many different pots, Spruston is constantly thinking on her toes, which is exactly how she likes it.

“I’m a change junkie, big time,” Spruston said. “No two days are the same, no two events are the same, and no two problems are the same. That’s what kept me juiced up over the last 11 years.”

Despite that, it’s not the chaos that keeps her going.

“I like to take the chaos and then put it into a nice little box,” Spruston explained. “I thrive in fixing chaos.”

With all kinds of ideas and tasks floating around inside her brain, Spruston has found ways to ensure she keeps on top of it all.

“It’s pretty unstructured, actually, but I have to take good notes,” she said. “I kind of adapt my organizational tools, depending on what it is. I have three fantastic direct reports who are very autonomous, they know their business very well, and they do their business very well. But sometimes they need to bounce ideas off me, or they need me to jump in and try something, and having a system helps.”

Though Spruston rarely deals with the typical OSEG customer, she says customer service is still a big part of her job, especially with the HR side of her job.

“Just because you might work with this person day in and day out or you might go have a beer with them after work, doesn’t mean that they’re any less a customer,” Spruston said. “Coworkers deserve the same kind of care. I think it’s important that all the shared services provide each other with great customer service.”

Her time with OSEG has checked virtually all the boxes and is an experience she doesn’t regret a second of.

“I have to think TD Place has the most diverse entertainment offerings that any employee could experience in Canada,” Spruston said. “There’s really no end to some of the cool puzzles that we all get to solve every day.”