2 March 2023
“On plurality, we’ve really paid attention to suspending any assumptions about what people might want or need to be able to safely do this work. So we’re never adopting a one size fits all approach and staying open to whatever adjustments we may need to make to minimize barriers and impacts that might be facing when it comes to fulfilling the duties of their role.” — Kim Burnell, Chayn
“We’ve worked to flesh out a really solid contract example that you can iterate from and play with, whilst the supporting information enables you to be informed about the risks that you might be taking in doing so and why you’re taking them. And we hope this also helps us to be bolder, because when we can understand why existing norms exists and what they protect, we can make more ambitious choices. So the terms database [which lays out legal and policy information about each term in the contract] we think is a really important complement to the example contract.” — Annette Dhami, Dark Matter Labs
It was such a joy to regroup to share with you the wonderful work we’ve pulled together for Contract-ing #betweentherules — Employment contracts, earlier in February. Thank you to the growing community of ~100 people who showed up and participated in the conversation of our shared learnings of process making behind the portal of resources, and hear from practitioners who have started transforming the tools and instruments from within. We hope that this will be a continuously porous space and platform we can all build upon from here on.
Thank you to Lou Byng from Civic Square, Kim Burnell from Chayn, Angela Tang, Calvin Po, Annette Dhami from Dark Matter Labs for giving us examples of how this work translated into your organisations, and for walking through the portal’s sections and due process of how it came to be. And a special thanks to Lankelly Chase, Rad HR, MAIA, Healing Justice London, and our employment contract-ing group peers for supporting and inspiring us along the way through your experiences in beautifully reimagining employment contracts in your organisations and communities of practice.
To the many people embarking upon these questions or considering them for the future, thank you for your poignant questions and reflections.
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Alternative employment contract example
Reimagining Contract-ing as a Process
<aside> <img src="/icons/light-bulb_yellow.svg" alt="/icons/light-bulb_yellow.svg" width="40px" /> Resources from the Employment Contract-ing event The event Miro Board. Visual material to complement the main recording and spaces for questions.
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<aside> <img src="/icons/movie-clapboard-play_blue.svg" alt="/icons/movie-clapboard-play_blue.svg" width="40px" /> Resources from the Employment Contract-ing event Main room recording with subtitles. Audio recording / Close captions
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Lou Byng - Civic Square — Governance purpose and work group process from 2021 to today (18 min video)
Kim Burnell - Chayn — Trauma Informed approaches and values to contract-ing (12 min video)
Q&A: Lou Byng — Have you got plans of changing your rules around working hours being "standard" i.e. flexible, 4 day working week, more flexible approaches? (2min30 video)
Q&A: Lou Byng — Format is very wordy! Are there alternative formats or an easy read version? (1 min video)