In an ideal world, every job would offer every worker good pay, purpose and a chance to grow. However, the ways in which we earn money and seek out a livelihood are much more complicated, especially when you consider the spiraling inequities many Americans face in the workplace today. Those nuances are explored in Working: What We Do All Day, a new limited series from Higher Ground Productions and Concordia Studio, hosted by former President Barack Obama and directed by Caroline Suh (Blackpink: Light Up the Sky, Salt Fat Acid Heat).

The Working series was inspired by a classic 1974 nonfiction work called Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do by Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Studs Terkel. Told through oral history, it chronicled over 100 everyday Americans of the era, their jobs and how employment impacted their lives. In the nearly 50 years since it was published, Americans have faced explosive changes in the way they work, all in the face of increasing inequality. 

“We wanted to show how work looks totally different, depending on what kind of work you do,” Suh tells Tudum.

Working applies the spirit of Terkel’s book to contemporary times, focusing on three different industries: home care, tech and hospitality, and shares the stories of 12 people representing the breadth of experiences therein. 

In the home care sector, the story follows a company called At Home Care Mississippi, a home health service primarily funded through Medicaid. Over the course of four episodes, Working follows Randi, a home care aide; Sheila, a supervisor overlooking more than 100 in-home care aides; Kenny Wayne Jones, a former state senator and lobbyist for At Home Care; and Jeanette, the founder and CEO of the organization who takes a lower salary to better support her employees and clients.

Working also follows the employment hierarchy of the Pierre Hotel in New York City, starting with Elba,  a union-protected housekeeper who has worked at the hotel for almost 23 years. The hotel also employs Beverly, who has run the switchboard for 21 years, as well François, the general manager who oversees about 500 workers. The final episode of the series introduces Natarajan “Chandra” Chandrasekaran, the chairman of the multibillion-dollar conglomerate called the Tata Group, which owns the Pierre Hotel. 

Finally, Working explores the impact of automation on the gig economy, first introduced by a single mom named Carmen who drives delivery for Uber Eats in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In the following episodes, we meet Luke, a data manager for a self-driving vehicle company called Aurora Innovation; Karthik, a senior robotics engineer; and Chris Urmson, the co-founder and CEO of Aurora.

As the series peels back the nuances of its subjects professional lives, audiences get a first-hand look at the varying degrees of job satisfaction for service employees; middle-class workers struggling to afford the rising costs of living; managers and knowledge workers who have the luxury of earning enough to explore other, more “meaningful” work; and company heads, whose decisions can affect millions of lives. Working also unpacks the disparity in work experience across generations, as well as the stark differences between skilled labor and creative work, which is less tangible. Ultimately, Working seeks to answer what having a “good” job really means today. 

“A job isn’t inherently a good job or a bad job,” Suh says. “Pay is number one, and it’s kind of undeniable. Seeing how Carmen doesn’t even get a minimum wage driving for Uber, and is just really reliant on tips. The variability of never knowing how far she has to drive, or how long it’s going to take and how much money she’s going to make. That’s really tough.” 

Suh also says that in addition to fair pay, stability is key. 

“People really want to be able to depend on a job, and to be able to invest in it,” she says. “And respect is a huge thing — how much you feel the respect of the people around you.”

While pay, stability and a sense of respect may seem like obvious answers, Suh says that working on this series made her realize there’s a less tangible quality that stands out across industries and employment levels. 

“There’s beauty in any job that’s done well,” Suh says. “There’s a positive affirmation there about the world, when you see someone doing a job well, no matter what it is.”

Working: What We Do All Day is available to watch on Netflix now.