Respect in the Workplace
(June 15/10)

Our Work in Progress series continues with a look at the risks of disrespect in the workplace. Mandatory "Respect in the Workplace" training sessions begs the questions ... Do the workshops really work? Can you teach civility?

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MP Exit Interviews
(June 15/10)

Just as a company can learn a lot about the way it does and doesn't work by conducting exit interviews with departing employees, so can a country's political institutions learn a lot by interviewing MPs as they leave political life. Anna Maria Tremonti speaks with three former MPs, who reflect on their life and work in Parliament and the surprising twists and turns that led them to politics in the first place.

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Beyond Nortel LTD Insurance
(May 25/10)

When Nortel declared bankruptcy, its former employees who were on long-term disability were left in the lurch. It turns out more than a million Canadians are covered by plans with similar risks. We take a look at some very important fine print with CBC business reporter, Julie Ireton.

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Awesome Jobs
(May 19/10)

As part of our Work In Progress, we share some of your stories about the worst jobs you've ever had and get some really good advice about how to escape your worst job and land a truly awesome one.

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Living Wage Laws
(May 14/10)

New Westminster, British Columbia is now the first jurisdiction in Canada with a living wage law. And there's a heated debate about whether that's good or bad for the people who live and work there.

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Hockey Fans & Productivity at Work
(May 12/10)

As the Montreal Canadiens continue their seemingly improbable run through the NHL playoffs, we look at how the city's newfound obsession with the team is affecting productivity. Some say a good, galvanizing play-off run can boost morale and productivity. But others say it just distracts people from the tasks at hand.

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Finding the Fit
(May 07/10)

As part of our Work In Progress series, we introduce you to a group of university students, all of whom have been diagnosed with autism ... as they try to find their first foothold in the job market. And a new company in Denmark, is helping to place autistic workers in jobs that utlizie their special skills ... high tech jobs in particular. Kim Pittaway brings us her documentary, Finding the Fit.

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Results Only Work Environment (ROWE)
(May 03/10)

How's this for workplace freedom? Show up when you like. Do what you want. And leave when you please. For the people behind a new management strategy called the Results Only Work Environment, that's all fine ... as long as the work gets done.

Workplace ID Badges
(April 23/10)

As part of our Work In Progress series, we look at the brave new world of cutting edge workplace technology. Including ID badges that can measure your posture, the tone of your voice ... even your level of trust in your colleagues. Tina Pittaway's documentary is called 1984 - 2010.

Extreme Work
(April 20/10)

We continue our on-going series, Work In Progress with a look at the allure and the effects of working in extreme isolation. Meet a doctor who spent 370 days working in an isolated station in the Antarctic.

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Compuslory Volunteering
(April 19/10)

If you force someone to volunteer, does it defeat the purpose? This is National Volunteer Week. And a large percentage of high school students have to do a certain amount of volunteer work before they can graduate. We look at how well that's working out.

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Public Service Salaries
(April 07/10)

As Ontario tackles a record deficit, its public servants grapple with a wage freeze. Seems when times are tough, it's the civil service that gets the short straw. Our Work in Progress series puts a price on the life of a public servant.

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Noteworthy - (Part Two)
(April 06/10)

When the Industrial Revolution came along, music was tossed out of the workplace. Machines replaced the need for people to coordinate their activities through song.But centuries later, as technology has allowed researchers to peer into the brain, we are discovering that music can once again enhance the workplace. Roberta Walker looks at how music is finding its way back to work in her documentary Noteworthy.

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Dead Tired
(March 25/10)

Pilots working long hours, criss-crossing time zones and often not getting a long enough break to recharge has lead to pilot error with tragic results. Gino Harel has an investigative documentary called Dead Tired that examines pilot fatigue in Canada.

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Juarez Good Cop
(March 10/10)

After dedicating himself entirely to being a "good" cop in Mexico's murder capital, Juarez ... Gustavo Gutierrez was forced to leave Mexico because the drug cartels have infiltrated every level of law enforcement in Mexico. "Good" cops are either recruited or killed.

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Two Brushes, Four Eyes
(March 2/10)

Michelle Woodey and Mary Kennedy are unusual neighbours. Not only do they live across the street from one another, they also work together. They are artists, and they team up to paint, together, on a single canvass. Their relationship is of both business and friendship. And both are tested as they decide to change their place of work.

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Anne Mroczkowski
(Feb 22/10)

For more than 20 years, Anne Mroczkowski has been delivering local news in Toronto. She was one of the first female news anchors and has been on the inside as the industry transformed itself. Now, she is out of a job. We hear her thoughts on the future of local news and the state of an industry in trouble.

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War Zone E.R.
(Feb 09/10)

Doing anything in a war zone is complicated and dangerous work. And trying to run a hospital in Kandahar where supplies are in short supply but patients are not is about as complicated as it gets. The Current continues it's season long series Work In Progress with a look at the Role 3 Multinational Hospital on the Kandahar air base and the man who has to keep it working, Major Marc Dauphin.

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Work & Music (Part One)
(Jan 05/10)

In this documentary, Working for a Song, we take a look back at the history of music at work ...from the construction of the pyramids to your Ipod in your cubicle. And we find out why music can make work better.

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Sick Days
(Jan 04/10)

As part of our series Work In Progress, we look at something that many people can relate to at this time of year ... missing work because you're sick. We get some expert advice about the effect of sick days on productivity and employee morale. And we also share some tips on how to call in sick when you just need a day off.

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Beer and Braids - Documentary
(Dec 24/09)

Women have fought to legitimize their work as housewives, but now more men are assuming these roles and taking on the battle themselves. As part of our Work in Progress series, The Current takes a look at stay-at-home Dads.

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Sensitivity in the Workplace
(Dec 15/09)

Our Work In Progress series looks at the trend of psychological testing that involves a concept that colour-codes colleagues in the workplace. Does it enhance the workplace? Or invite abuse?

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Nortel Redux
(Dec 09/09)

About a year ago, we introduced you to two Nortel workers who had survived 16 rounds of job cuts. They've survived three more since Nortel filed for bankruptcy protection. Ottawa business reporter, Julie Ireton brings us an update to find out if these two Nortel workers are still standing.

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The Women Who Built the Olympic Village
(Dec 08/09)

Journalist Pamela Post takes us to the Olympic Village to meet three women who are working on the construction site - a lift operator, a glass installer and an architectural technologist. Across the country women make up only 3% of workers in the trades. But these three have found ways to excel in the gruelling world of construction.

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Management Consulting (Dec 07/09)

Today on Work In Progress, we take a look at the cost of management consulting. Is management theory valuable or a waste of money for the businesses and governments who pay for it? Meet a former management consultant who says the industry is built on questionable experiments and MBA programs with no evidence to support their value.

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Bullying in the Workplace (Nov 30/09)

One in three workers say it's happened to them. It is torment that is going on in offices, on the factory floor and where ever work is being conducted. Bullying. The ongoing assault on an employee's self-esteem by a fellow worker or boss. Ontario is poised to outlaw the practice and will join a nationwide trend to beat down on-the-job bullying.

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A Mining Town (Nov 16/09)

Steelworkers at the Inco mine in Sudbury have been on strike since July. The city has seen strikes before but this time the community support for the workers is showing how divided the community is about the role its past will play in its future.

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H1N1 & Work Relations (Nov 12/09)

We look at the ethics, economics and etiquette of staying home sick during the H1N1 flu pandemic. Employees are caught between staying home and leaving their colleagues to pick up the slack or going to work and infecting them. Public health officials say staying home is the best thing to limit the pandemic. But economists say that staying home could be a serious drag on the economy.

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Outsourcing Journalists (Nov 10/09)

The Toronto Star has contracted out some of its editorial positions in a bid to cut costs. Several American newspapers have outsourced editorial positions as well. The newspapers say it's necessary in order to cut costs but many people think the practice is hurting journalism.

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Job Quality Erosion (Nov 05/09)

Canada's job numbers are rebounding but the quality of those jobs is still lagging and more Canadians are being forced to move sectors, having to settle for part-time work, self-employment or jobs that don't pay as much.

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Factory Farming (Nov 04/09)

The war in the country is a polemic on the destruction of the traditional family farm in rural Canada. The few remaining family farms now struggle to survive in the face of corporate backed factory farms, mining interests and tourist developments. At stake is the quality and sustainability of our food. We met up with Thomas Pawlick, author of War in the Country on his farm in Marlbank, Ontario We also meet a new breed of family farmer and get a response from the organization that represents all Canadian farmers.

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Nortel - LTD Benefits (Nov 02/09)

Nortel employees on long-term disability may lose their benefits because the plan was "self-insured" by the company ... a company that is now going through bankruptcy proceedings. Hear from one person whose benefits are at risk and from a financial advisor who says plenty of other Canadians could find themselves in the same position because other companies have set up their plans in similar ways.

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Hacking Work: Saving Business from
Itself, One Bad Act at a Time (Oct 28/09)

According to the authors of a new book, Hacking Work, our tools, procedures and structures at work are more bossy then our bosses. Frustrated employees are finding workarounds to make their jobs easier. Find out how to get the system work for you.

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Workers Compensation Board Frustrations (Oct 23/09)

After ten long hours, the hostage taking at the Workers Compensation Board building in Edmonton ended safely. While the hostage taking shocked and appalled everyone, it got the country talking about The Workers Compensation Board. Turns out there is an enormous amount of frustration among claimants who say they are not being treated fairly.

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Retirement (Oct 16/09)

So much for Freedom 55. According to a new study, working after you retire, even just a little bit, can make you healthier and happier than people who don't.

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Marine Biologist Couple (Oct 14/09)

A dual feature interview: Boris and Heike, two world-leading marine biologists, share their thoughts on the state of global fish stocks and how their respective research builds on and complement's the other's. Find out how this high-powered research couple manages to balance an intensely intellectual, research-oriented and collaborative professional life with a more conventional domestic life.

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Burlesque West (Oct 14/09)

Exotic dancing has been a part of the Vancouver entertainment scene for decades and it is a story of sex, burlesque, and earning a living. Author, Becki Ross looks at the history of a by-gone era in her new book, Burlesque West: Showgirls, Sex and Sin in Post War Vancouver and gives us a glimpse into the working life of a dancer in a business many would rather ignore.

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Intern Culture (Oct 08/09)

In the wake of a global recession internships have become a lot more competitive. In fact, a whole new industry is cropping up, in which students pay - sometimes thousands of dollars - just for the chance to land the right internship. We're asking if internships are tipping over into exploitation and whether they're still a good deal for the people who get them.

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Obsessive Work (Sept 28/09)

It began as a perfectly respectable academic career for Glen Chilton - a behavioural ecologist specializing in a particular species of songbird. But it has become an all-consuming quest that has taken him around the world, cost him thousands of dollars of his own money, and put him on the trail of an elusive flock of very dead and very stuffed ducks.

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When the Work Goes - Welland Pt 3 (Sept 23/09)

As factory after factory and business after business folded and left Welland Ontario the community wondered... could the town ever rise again and if it did, what kind of businesses would provide the economic growth? Well, the town is starting to rebound and the new jobs being created bring a new meaning to the word recycle.

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When the Work Goes - Welland Pt 2 (Sept 22/09)

As the manufacturing jobs disappear in Welland people are realizing that in order to work, and to work in Welland they have to change their expectation that a job is for life. The Current goes to the United Steel workers adjustment centre to find out how laid off workers are adjusting their view of work.

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When the Work Goes - Welland Pt 1 (Sept 21/09)

Over the past ten years, the town of Welland has been hit hard by job losses and plant closures. Once the kind of place where jobs were so plentiful you could quit one in the morning and find another in the afternoon, today families are struggling to find any work at all. The Current goes to Welland Ontario to find out what happens to the very fabric of a town and its people when the work goes away.

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The Hunter - September 15/09

Darren Atkinson is a husband, a father, a musician... and a dumpster diver. If he's not playing drums for a living, he's diving into industrial waste bins, looking for treasure. This is work. This is his "job". He sells what he can, or trades thrown-away goods for services and favours. But can a self-confessed - and possibly obsessed - "dumpsterologist" make a living from the cast-offs of our consumer society?

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Fearless: Beatrice Mtweta - September 14/09

Beatrice Mtetwa has been harrassed, arrested, jailed and beaten ... but she says it's her job. She's a human rights lawyer in Zimbabwe, a profession that almost guarantees personal suffering and loss. Her colleagues call her fearless. She's taken on a deeply corrupt system, winning aquittals for both Zimbabwean and foreign journalists who face charges under her country's restrictive media laws.

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New Jobs/Old Jobs - September 10/09

Lots of people today are looking for work because their jobs have disappeared. Our series, Work in Progress, looks at the jobs that are fading into the past and the new kinds of work that are just appearing on the horizon.

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Work: In Progress - September 8/09

Working hard, showing up on time, going above and beyond expectations ... our work ethic in Western society has a long hardworking history. In this documentary, a look at that history and at the intriguing parallels with social insects such as ants and bees.

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