Directed by Caroline Suh and narrated by Barack Obama, Working: What We Do All Day is a new four-part docuseries that explores what gainful employment looks like in America. Based on Studs Terkel’s classic nonfiction book Working, the series asks questions like what makes a “good” job good across all levels of the workforce in home care, tech and hospitality. 

“We may not think about it, but we’re all a part of something larger than any single one of us,” Obama says in the series. “Work is one of the forces that connects us.”

While Working explores compelling ideas and issues about labor and work, the real heart of the story are the people featured in each episode, their own unique relationships to their jobs and their individual motivations for doing the work they do. Meet the cast of Working below.​​

Elba
Occupation: housekeeper, The Pierre Hotel; New York
Elba immigrated to the United States from the Dominican Republic when she was 16, and her first job in the US was working in a factory earning $4 an hour. She’s worked at the Pierre Hotel for almost 23 years under the protection of her union. 

Randi
Occupation: home care aide, At Home Care Solutions, Inc; Mississippi
Randi took the job at At Home Care because she wanted to help people. For her, work needs to have meaning and impact. She’s balancing the demands of her job with caring for her young daughter. Her ultimate goal is to own a home. 

Carmen
Occupation: delivery driver, Uber Eats and freelance makeup artist; Pennsylvania
Carmen is a single mom living in Pittsburgh. The lack of guaranteed wages makes it difficult to find stability, and she’s focused on getting her career as a makeup artist off the ground.

Beverly
Occupation: switchboard operator, The Pierre Hotel; New York
Beverly has worked at the hotel for 21 years, first as a housekeeper and currently as a switchboard operator. Beverly’s main priority in her work is client comfort and guest satisfaction. Like Elba, her position is protected by a union. 

Luke
Occupation: data manager, Aurora Innovation and freelance music producer; Pennsylvania
Luke is on the motion planning operations team for self-driving vehicle company Aurora Innovation. He considers himself “Pittsburgh comfortable” in the sense that he makes enough to pay his bills and is considering purchasing a home. While he’s happy with his job at Aurora, his true passion is music and he recently released an album.

Sheila
Occupation: supervisor, At Home Care; Mississippi
Sheila oversees roughly 100 in-home care aides, including managing their training and schedules. Much of Sheila’s job involves listening to her aides’ needs and requests — paid time off, adequate raises, etc. — and elevating those concerns to management. 

François
Occupation: general manager, the Pierre Hotel; New York
François started in the hotel business in 1994 and now oversees 500 workers at the Pierre Hotel. His job is to build upon the business and the day-to-day operations, which means he’s often working around the clock.  

Karthik
Occupation: former senior robotics engineer, Aurora Innovation and current robotics engineer, Zipline; California
Karthik started out as a programmer and worked his way up to managing a team of engineers. He says that having his type of job — one that pays well, that he’s also good at — is a privilege. He also believes that one of the most important elements of success at work is to surround yourself with people you can learn from.

 

Kenny Wayne Jones
Occupation: former state senator and current lobbyist for At Home Care Solutions, Inc; Mississippi
Kenny meets with politicians to represent his clients’ needs and to lobby local politicians to focus on community development. In the series, he discusses the lingering impact of racism on his constituents. Because of his successful career, he’s been able to give his children trust funds to help launch their careers.

Chris Urmson
Occupation: co-founder and CEO of Aurora Innovation; California
Chris worked at Google before leaving to start Aurora, an automated driving company that recently went public. Despite the fact that self-driving vehicles will inevitably take away trucking jobs, he believes Aurora will ultimately create a safer future.

Natarajan “Chandra” Chandrasekaran
Occupation: chairman of the Tata Group; India
The Tata Group is a multinational, multibillion-dollar conglomerate that owns the Pierre Hotel under its subsidiary, Taj Hotels. Tata routes two-thirds of its profits into a philanthropic trust, a unique model within hospitality. Now based in Mumbai, Chandra himself was raised on a farm in rural India, and believes in founder J.N. Tata’s view that profits earned from the people should be returned to them, too. 

Jeanette 
Occupation: founder and CEO, At Home Care Solutions, Inc; Mississippi
At Home Care is the largest private employer in southwest Mississippi. Although they are primarily funded through Medicaid, At Home Care does not receive enough assistance to operate comfortably. Jeanette could pay herself much more than she does, but takes a low salary to better support her workers and clients.

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