Well, there’s a wrinkle that I probably should have foreseen. Apparently, the employees recently cut loose by Tokyopop were asked to sign a non-disclosure agreement of some sort in order to receive their severance pay, which makes exit interviews a little difficult. I certainly don’t want to complicate anyone’s situation further, but I do want to pursue this project and try and get their names out. I would imagine that even forwarding the non-disclosure agreement to someone who isn’t the signer’s legal representative may constitute a violation of said agreement, and even if I could read it, I wouldn’t be remotely comfortable trying to distinguish what constitutes a violation and what’s safe to discuss. (I don’t even know if describing job duties would constitute a violation, to be honest.)
I’ve already got one interview ready to go, and two others have written to express an interest. Based on the first interview, it doesn’t seem significantly different from the kinds of interviews that have been conducted with Tokyopop employees while they were still working there, but… again, a pittance of a severance package is still a severance package during difficult economic times. And since my former PR contact at the publisher no longer works there, I’m not sure who to ask.
Anyone have any advice on how I might proceed? Here’s the list of questions I’ve put together: