diff --git a/src/calibre/utils/ipc/launch.py b/src/calibre/utils/ipc/launch.py
index 508e302708..3a6344132d 100644
--- a/src/calibre/utils/ipc/launch.py
+++ b/src/calibre/utils/ipc/launch.py
@@ -167,7 +167,8 @@ class Worker(object):
         '''
         exe = self.gui_executable if self.gui else self.executable
         env = self.env
-        env['ORIGWD'] = cwd or os.path.abspath(os.getcwd())
+        env[b'ORIGWD'] = binascii.hexlify(cPickle.dumps(cwd or
+                                    os.path.abspath(os.getcwdu())))
         _cwd = cwd
         if priority is None:
             priority = prefs['worker_process_priority']
diff --git a/src/calibre/utils/pyconsole/interpreter.py b/src/calibre/utils/pyconsole/interpreter.py
index 3cd0d94711..1c06f8102e 100644
--- a/src/calibre/utils/pyconsole/interpreter.py
+++ b/src/calibre/utils/pyconsole/interpreter.py
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ __license__   = 'GPL v3'
 __copyright__ = '2010, Kovid Goyal <kovid@kovidgoyal.net>'
 __docformat__ = 'restructuredtext en'
 
-import sys, cPickle, os
+import sys, cPickle, os, binascii
 from code import InteractiveInterpreter
 from Queue import Queue, Empty
 from threading import Thread
@@ -130,7 +130,7 @@ class Interpreter(InteractiveInterpreter): # {{{
 # }}}
 
 def connect():
-    os.chdir(os.environ['ORIGWD'])
+    os.chdir(cPickle.loads(binascii.unhexlify(os.environ['ORIGWD'])))
     address = cPickle.loads(unhexlify(os.environ['CALIBRE_WORKER_ADDRESS']))
     key     = unhexlify(os.environ['CALIBRE_WORKER_KEY'])
     return Client(address, authkey=key)