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Meaning of Work

Laurie Taylor descends into the underworld of cleaners in Potsdamer Platz, the glittering city centre in Berlin, and hears how different workers struggle for meaning through work.

Laurie Taylor talks to Jana Costas, Chair of People, Work & Management at the European University Viadrina, Frankfurt (Oder), Germany about the unseen cleaners beyond the shiny surface of Potsdamer Platz, a designer micro-city within Berlin's city centre. Behind the scenes they pick up cigarette butts from pavements, scrape chewing gum from marble floors and scrub public toilets, long before white-collar workers, consumers and tourists enter the complex. How do they feel about work which some would stigmatise as degrading? How do they salvage a sense of personal dignity? Also, Katie Bailey, Professor of Work and Employment at Kings College, London unpacks her analysis of accounts related by nurses, creative artists and lawyers as to why they find their work meaningful.

Producer: Jayne Egerton

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28 minutes

Last on

Sun 27 Oct 2024 06:05

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Guests and further reading

-听, Chair of People, Work & Management at the European University Viadrina, Frankfurt (Oder), Germany

Dramas of Dignity: Cleaners in the Corporate Underworld of Berlin听(Cambridge University Press)

- , Professor of Work and Employment at Kings College, London

, by Catherine Bailey, Adrian Madden and Marjolein Lips-Wiersma, in Human Relations


Broadcasts

  • Tue 22 Oct 2024 15:30
  • Sun 27 Oct 2024 06:05

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