CTRL+WORK
The weekly standup
Everything you need to know before you have to microwave your coffee for the first time.
- 🤖 AI is leaving the lab.
- 🧠 Employees are still struggling with wellbeing.
- 📦 Tariffs are making businesses nervous (again).
The office chatter ☕
What everyone’s pretending not to read during meetings.
😬 Employees are still not okay
Only 56% of Canadian workers report high levels of wellbeing, showing that wellness perks alone aren’t solving the bigger workplace challenges around stress, finances and overwhelm.
Source: Benefits Canada
📦 Businesses are back in tariff limbo
New U.S. tariff threats have Canada’s premiers scrambling, leaving businesses to prepare for another round of uncertainty around costs, supply chains and trade.
Source: CBC
The breakroom bulletin 📌
What’s hot, what’s not and what’s all for show.
Getting Promoted
🍷 Canada is making it easier to buy booze
Provinces will now allow alcohol producers to sell directly to customers across the country. A small win for consumers, and a bigger one for Canadian businesses.
Source: Retail Insider
🏃 China is gaining in the AI race
Chinese AI models are catching up while costing far less, forcing businesses to rethink whether the most expensive AI tools are the best ones for every task.
Source: The Peak
On a PIP
💼 The 9-5 isn’t paying the bills
More Gen Z workers are turning to side hustles as the cost of living climbs. For employers, it’s a reminder that financial stress doesn’t stop when employees clock in.
Source: Benefits Canada
🔥 Oil just joined the group chat
Oil prices are climbing again, putting pressure on everything from transportation costs to supply chains. The problem? Businesses don’t get a vote on geopolitics.
Source: Global News
Corporate Theatre
😬 The AI company trying to calm fears made things worse
Anthropic wanted to spark a conversation about AI’s risks. Instead, its latest ad left people divided over whether it made AI feel more trustworthy or more unsettling.
Source: TechCrunch
🤖 Meta’s newest AI feature sparked a privacy backlash
Meta launched an AI feature that let users create images using public Instagram accounts, then immediately pulled it after backlash over privacy and consent.
Source: CNET
Ideas Worth Stealing
💱 The everything exchange is coming
Coinbase is betting customers want one place to trade every kind of asset. Convenience might be the next competitive advantage.
Source: The Peak
🤖 The next AI revolution has a body
U of T researchers are building the next generation of physical AI. The future of work won’t just be powered by software: it’ll move, build and operate alongside us.
Source: BetaKit
What I Can’t Stop Thinking About 🧠
AI is starting to make its own decisions
📖 The story
A new OpenAI model reportedly tried to work around some safeguards during testing while pursuing its objective. The behaviour was caught before release, documented publicly and addressed, sparking fresh discussion about how AI systems should be tested as they become more autonomous.
📶 The signal
Every new technology has bugs. The difference is that AI companies are now under a microscope for how they handle them.
🛫 The takeaway
AI is becoming a bigger part of how we work, but trust won’t come from perfection. Early models won’t always get it right, but if issues are caught early, shared openly and fixed quickly, businesses will feel far more confident experimenting with AI — and that’s where the biggest opportunities lie.
Smart People Saying Smart Things 💬
One post, tweet or take that’s making people in the world of work stop scrolling. This week, entrepreneur and wealth strategist Empire Mindset shared a reminder that consistency beats motivation. The people who get ahead aren’t waiting to feel inspired. They’re building systems that keep them moving when the excitement disappears.
“Motivation is a bad business partner. It shows up late, leaves early, and disappears when the work gets boring. Build a routine that does not need permission from your mood.”
My Music at Work 🎵
One song helping us survive another week of impromptu Slack huddles.
The Last Thing Before We Jump 🦘
Everyone wants to know what the future of work looks like. Bad news: it doesn’t look like a movie. There’s no giant robot walking into the office or CEO announcing “the future is here.”
It’s much messier than that. It’s AI quietly changing how decisions get made. Employees finding new ways to make ends meet. Businesses rewriting plans because something happened halfway around the world.
The future of work isn’t coming. It’s already in your calendar.
See you next week.
