FW: Pixar Ends Personal Service Contracts

Forwarding older but good stuff...
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(animationguildblog.blogspot.com)

The L.A. Times has now reported:

As a manager, Catmull has risked losing his best people to stand on principle. He doesn't believe in employment contracts because he thinks they send the wrong message.


"The first thing it says is, 'I don't trust the employee,'" he said, preferring to try to keep his best performers by treating them right...


Just between you, me and the rest of the blogosphere, I've never liked Personal Service Contracts. I've seen them abused by employees, and trashed by companies when it suited their fancy. (And being in the middle of fights between artists and conglomerates over PSCs over the years has worn me out and made me cynical. They were useful in the mid-nineties when studios were reckless about handing them out, but today they are as much a straitjacket as security blanket.)


I think it keeps everything clean and honest when the employee can exit when the spirit moves her. I also think it makes companies better places to work. Knowing you can lose your key employees if you don't treat them right, tends to make you treat them with more honesty and respect.


Source: http://animationguildblog.blogspot.com/2006/06/end-of-era-of-personal-service.html