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<blockquote data-quote="sunshadow21" data-source="post: 7679503" data-attributes="member: 6667193"><p>Get over Paizo vs WotC; seriously, it's getting tiresome. For one, contracting out a magazine that is clearly an accessory product, but one that requires a full time staff of its own is not likely to get nearly as sharp a reaction as contracting out entire books when total output for the brand is only three or four products a year total. Second, you are right that the term had negative connotations long before that, but the difference was at the time that WotC had Paizo under contract outsourcing, like freelancing, had a very specific meaning, and the two were very clearly different. Now, it doesn't, and it's not just WotC or this industry being effected. Lots of industries that have traditionally relied on similar structures with little difficulty are coming under fire. Others are attempting to create new types of businesses that deliberately blur the boundaries. Even in traditional companies, a lot of actions are being taken by the employers and a lot of concerns are being raised by employees that push that boundary. The core conversation is pretty much the same in every case, and it's not the same core conversation being held ten years ago.</p><p></p><p>The restaurant business, which has long relied on franchise agreements from large chains, is having to have a conversation not too dissimilar to this one for a variety of reasons. I worked at Domino's almost a decade ago for a short time, and I worked at a Domino's in the last year or so, and the experiences and conversations where completely different, despite the fact that I was shift manager for portions of both periods, so the job duties were essentially the same. A decade ago, there was occasional friction between the franchisee and corporate headquarters, but it was all internal, and any impact it had on day to day conversation was the occasional concern about what was or was not on the menu in our specific store. No links to or concerns about how other industries worked or anything like what I experienced in my latest stint. That time, friction between the franchisee and corporate headquarters was massively apparent as corporate was trying very hard to create a unified image, but expected the franchisee to foot most, if not all, of the bill. For that and other things, this type of conversation was at minimum a weekly topic, and not infrequently more common than that. In other restaurant chains, some of the frustrations at the employee level have been taken to court, and the precise nature of the franchise agreement, and who is responsible for what, has been publicly challenged. As a result of these forces and other ones present both within the industry and without, it's likely that franchise agreements will change in ways that ten years ago would have been seen as absurd. </p><p></p><p>In the meantime, delivery drivers using their own vehicles face new insurance restrictions because companies like Uber are forcing the insurance companies to change policies regarding using personal vehicles for business use. Airbnb is forcing how home insurance policies are being written as the definition of "guest" and "hotel" blur.</p><p></p><p>Even in traditional companies, there's a lot of pressure from both sides that has changed how business occurs. Ten years ago, I would never have even considered a temp to permanent while working with a temp agency; now, I've personally experienced it twice, and the company I am trying to get hired on permanently at just, for lack of any better word, outsourced their time clock, vacation tracking, and similar HR functions to an outside company. From the bottom, a lot of employees are starting to get concerned about wanting to own and control their own ideas rather than just feeding them into the corporate machine. Both directions are applying force that really challenges the old assumptions.</p><p></p><p>In the end, outsourcing may not be the precise word used in any of these example, but it is becoming the most familiar word that describes the general trends highlighted by the above examples, and is forcing a lot of companies, even those of relatively unchanged industries, that have long held particular ways of doing things. In all cases, the question of who precisely is making the product, who actually owns it, and what is proper compensation are really the core questions. WotC should be thankful that their only concern right now is fixing terminology, and is not likely to have to do much more in the near future; a lot of the above examples tend to involve lawyers and/or sharp changes in actual practices that have some significant ripple effects, especially on the compensation question, which this industry has been blessed to not have to worry about. Expect those questions to only become more and more prominent in the years ahead, not less.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="sunshadow21, post: 7679503, member: 6667193"] Get over Paizo vs WotC; seriously, it's getting tiresome. For one, contracting out a magazine that is clearly an accessory product, but one that requires a full time staff of its own is not likely to get nearly as sharp a reaction as contracting out entire books when total output for the brand is only three or four products a year total. Second, you are right that the term had negative connotations long before that, but the difference was at the time that WotC had Paizo under contract outsourcing, like freelancing, had a very specific meaning, and the two were very clearly different. Now, it doesn't, and it's not just WotC or this industry being effected. Lots of industries that have traditionally relied on similar structures with little difficulty are coming under fire. Others are attempting to create new types of businesses that deliberately blur the boundaries. Even in traditional companies, a lot of actions are being taken by the employers and a lot of concerns are being raised by employees that push that boundary. The core conversation is pretty much the same in every case, and it's not the same core conversation being held ten years ago. The restaurant business, which has long relied on franchise agreements from large chains, is having to have a conversation not too dissimilar to this one for a variety of reasons. I worked at Domino's almost a decade ago for a short time, and I worked at a Domino's in the last year or so, and the experiences and conversations where completely different, despite the fact that I was shift manager for portions of both periods, so the job duties were essentially the same. A decade ago, there was occasional friction between the franchisee and corporate headquarters, but it was all internal, and any impact it had on day to day conversation was the occasional concern about what was or was not on the menu in our specific store. No links to or concerns about how other industries worked or anything like what I experienced in my latest stint. That time, friction between the franchisee and corporate headquarters was massively apparent as corporate was trying very hard to create a unified image, but expected the franchisee to foot most, if not all, of the bill. For that and other things, this type of conversation was at minimum a weekly topic, and not infrequently more common than that. In other restaurant chains, some of the frustrations at the employee level have been taken to court, and the precise nature of the franchise agreement, and who is responsible for what, has been publicly challenged. As a result of these forces and other ones present both within the industry and without, it's likely that franchise agreements will change in ways that ten years ago would have been seen as absurd. In the meantime, delivery drivers using their own vehicles face new insurance restrictions because companies like Uber are forcing the insurance companies to change policies regarding using personal vehicles for business use. Airbnb is forcing how home insurance policies are being written as the definition of "guest" and "hotel" blur. Even in traditional companies, there's a lot of pressure from both sides that has changed how business occurs. Ten years ago, I would never have even considered a temp to permanent while working with a temp agency; now, I've personally experienced it twice, and the company I am trying to get hired on permanently at just, for lack of any better word, outsourced their time clock, vacation tracking, and similar HR functions to an outside company. From the bottom, a lot of employees are starting to get concerned about wanting to own and control their own ideas rather than just feeding them into the corporate machine. Both directions are applying force that really challenges the old assumptions. In the end, outsourcing may not be the precise word used in any of these example, but it is becoming the most familiar word that describes the general trends highlighted by the above examples, and is forcing a lot of companies, even those of relatively unchanged industries, that have long held particular ways of doing things. In all cases, the question of who precisely is making the product, who actually owns it, and what is proper compensation are really the core questions. WotC should be thankful that their only concern right now is fixing terminology, and is not likely to have to do much more in the near future; a lot of the above examples tend to involve lawyers and/or sharp changes in actual practices that have some significant ripple effects, especially on the compensation question, which this industry has been blessed to not have to worry about. Expect those questions to only become more and more prominent in the years ahead, not less. [/QUOTE]
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