The documentary "Working: What We Do All Day," directed by Barack Obama, has gained internet traction.

 "American Factory," a picture of a former General Motors plant taken over by Fuyao, a Chinese business that cut safety standards and compensation while vehemently opposing unionisation, won the Academy Award for Documentary Feature in 2020. Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert won the Oscar, but it was also a win for Higher Ground, the production firm run by former president and first lady Barack and Michelle Obama, which bought "American Factory" as its first big motion picture.

The 1974 publication of the same name by Studs Terkel served as the basis for the new Netflix series "Working" (subtitled "What We Do All Day"). However, it also serves as a loose sequel to "American Factory," making much of the same arguments regarding the development of labour and the decline of the middle class. "Working" also has the same underlying conflicts as its predecessor, which are a direct result of the Obamas' participation. In the case of "Working," the nation's 44th president serves as more than simply a name in the credits; he also serves as the host and narrator, a dual function he also performed in a previous Higher Ground series called "Our Great National Parks."

That level of participation simply emphasises the nature of "Working" and all Higher Ground projects in general. It is a political statement that can stand alone and is also a part of a longer political heritage. The latter always obscures and complicates the former.

"Working" is divided into four sections and three industries, and it is directed by Caroline Suh. Every installment starts with service labour and moves up a rung of the class structure, passing through middle managers, knowledge workers, and finally the executives at the top. The movie "Working" shows how these hierarchies exist not just in the economy as a whole but also in specific workplaces, such as a home health care business in southern Mississippi, a five-star hotel in New York City, and a software startup that is striving to automate long-distance transportation and has offices in Silicon Valley and Pittsburgh. At the hotel, we meet the chairman of the Indian company that controls the hospitality group before the cleaner who cleans several dozen rooms daily.

From the care and service industries, which have replaced manufacturing as the defining American professions, to the technological firms that "disrupt" the status quo, for better or worse, all of these corporations embody some facet of the modern workforce. These case studies also significantly differ from one another. For instance, the hotel is unionised, saving employment that some of its competitors have cut and guaranteeing a good quality of pay. On the other side, the home healthcare agency pays only $10 per hour, offers little benefits, and does not provide hazard pay during the epidemic. 

Obama has a responsibility to explain these differences and express a viewpoint on what labour is and ought to be. He accomplishes this primarily through voiceover, switching between stock video and animated excerpts from a typical Democratic stump speech (a middle-class life is "a great — maybe the great — American idea"). Such explanations can be simplistic when compared to the complexity of the real lives Suh and her producers studied. "All in the Family," "Dallas," and "Friends" are responsible for changing attitudes about wealth throughout time. In Obama's narrative, workers' rights in America started with the New Deal, with no acknowledgment of the extralegal efforts that came before.

Obama also engages with the people who are featured in "Working," who are typically just seen punching the clock. But they discuss their more general goals, dreams, and anxieties with the former president. A single parent says as she passes a grocery store that she had to leave her position as a health assistant since the hours weren't flexible enough to accommodate childcare. An employee of a software company gives a tour of the first house he had to save up for and acknowledges that music is his actual passion and probably won't ever be his 9 to 5. Even as he casually comments that he hasn't routinely driven a car in more than ten years, these sequences make better use of Obama's extraordinary charisma, which enables him to actually connect with ordinary people. 

They are also the times he describes the overarching purpose he wants "Working" to achieve. "I'm actually in a nice mood. When questioned about his outlook after leaving the White House, he replies, "I achieved most of the goals I set. "It involves more than just myself. I'm concerned about the coming generation.

This dialogue comes close to expressing the ethos of both "Working" and Higher Ground, which holds that the Obamas' best chance of influencing change for the next generation after leaving the White House is through culture and the soft power that goes along with it. The majority of Higher Ground's work has supported liberal causes, whether they be environmental protection, child nutrition, or community involvement. 

The ideal of how work can bring sustenance and meaning is uncontroversial but becoming more and more out of reach, and "working" is no different. Obama says, "A good job is one where you feel seen, valued, and might have the opportunity to grow." We strengthen the trust that underpins everything in our lives when we ensure that everyone thinks their effort is acknowledged. 

Obama, though, is clearly not some external force trying to sway the system. He is a politician who spent almost ten years in a position of great authority. This reality hangs over "Working," which has a tendency to pass off strongly opinionated ideas as objective observations. Let's be honest, says Obama. 

"There are always those at the top and bottom of the ladder. With capitalism, that is especially true, and we shouldn't act otherwise. This feels less like an apparent reality and more like a subjective vision from someone who has always been more moderate than socialist while leftist criticisms have gained support inside Obama's own party. This mindset is somewhat represented in "Working," which loses some bite when it turns its attention away from the people who are trying to survive and towards the CEOs who are in charge. Obama does criticise corporate avarice, but surprisingly, none of the bad leaders are named who gave "Working" access.

The majority of Obama's actual record in office and its impact on the circumstances described in "Working" are suggested. In Mississippi, the Affordable Care Act, Obama's signature piece of legislation, has been undermined in part by the Republican governor's refusal to expand Medicaid, one of its cornerstones. (The state is still one of only ten that refuse to broaden the programme.) Other times, there is more separation between the president's and the executive producer's acts. Following an Uber Eats driver who earns less than the minimum wage, "Working" is loudly critical of the role that internet corporations play in promoting the gig economy.

But because of the cosy relationship his former government had with Big Tech, several of Obama's old colleagues now work for the same companies that "Working" criticises, including David Plouffe at Uber, Jay Carney at Amazon, and Valerie Jarrett on the board of Lyft.

The show "Working" itself is broadcast on Netflix, which has been Higher Ground's partner since 2018 and is currently being criticised by the Writers Guild of America for having sparked changes in Hollywood that have made stable employment more difficult to find. (Higher Ground has agreements with Spotify and Audible from Amazon.) Obama's participation is a double-edged blade that helps "Working" get an audience while also making it the topic of tougher questions than if it were just a sympathetic, expertly created picture of modern work. However, the programme cannot and should not be judged by Obama alone. 

In the Trump years, the excitement surrounding Obama's victory would wane into a perception that his successes were more decorative than substantive, providing semi-annual playlists rather than long-term fixes to pressing issues. With "Working" being simply the most recent example, much of Higher Ground's work feels like a covert acknowledgement that this is indeed the case.