How to use these annotations

Employment contracts, including this example, are ideally not be not one-size-fits-all, but designed to respond to a specific organisational, legal, and design context. We have created an annotated version of this example contract to explain our thought processes and reasons for why we have made the contract’s strategic decisions in this way.

We strongly recommend you read this version of the contract with annotations first, before using the contract as a starting point for your own, to understand the context of how that contract was shaped, and reflect on how these constraints or considerations may or may not apply to your own circumstances.

We have tagged these annotations under the key categories below:

• <span style="color: blue;">Policy Considerations: how we have considered the organisation’s policy, i.e. how its members decide to work together and run their organisation. </span>
• <span style="color: green;">Legal Considerations: how we have considered the legal frameworks in creating the contract, including how employment law, contract law, etc., has shaped how the contract works.</span>
• <span style="color: red;">Design Considerations: how we have considered communications design questions, including information hierarchy, user experience, and how to ensure the nature of the agreement is communicated clearly.</span>

We also invite you to look at our Reimagining Contract Terms table for our reflections on the typical terms that form an employment contract, and how they can be reimagined beyond their conventional approaches.

How to use these annotations

Employment contracts, including this example, are ideally not be not one-size-fits-all, but designed to respond to a specific organisational, legal, and design context. We have created an annotated version of this example contract to explain our thought processes and reasons for why we have made the contract’s strategic decisions in this way.

We strongly recommend you read this version of the contract with annotations first, before using the contract as a starting point for your own, to understand the context of how that contract was shaped, and reflect on how these constraints or considerations may or may not apply to your own circumstances.

We have tagged these annotations under the key categories below:

• <span style="color: blue;">Policy Considerations: how we have considered the organisation’s policy, i.e. how its members decide to work together and run their organisation. </span>
• <span style="color: green;">Legal Considerations: how we have considered the legal frameworks in creating the contract, including how employment law, contract law, etc., has shaped how the contract works.</span>
• <span style="color: red;">Design Considerations: how we have considered communications design questions, including information hierarchy, user experience, and how to ensure the nature of the agreement is communicated clearly.</span>

We also invite you to look at our Reimagining Contract Terms table for our reflections on the typical terms that form an employment contract, and how they can be reimagined beyond their conventional approaches.

IZA – Institute of Labor Economics. ‘COVID-19 and the Labor Market’. Accessed 6 October 2020. https://covid-19.iza.org/publications/dp13690/.

Susan Athey, July 22, 2020. (2020, August 2). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqTOPrUxDzM

Sorokanich, L., Sorokanich, L., & Sorokanich, L. (2020, June 16). Six experts on how we’ll live, work, and play in cities after COVID-19. Fast Company. https://www.fastcompany.com/90506247/six-experts-on-how-well-live-work-and-play-in-cities-after-covid