In Obama’s Working, There Is No Way Out
Barack Obama abandoned his commitments to unions, and many top staffers went to work for the gig economy. In his Netflix series Working, the former president bears witness to workers’ suffering as if it were immutable — and something he had nothing to do with.
Barack Obama in his new four-part docuseries, Working. (Netflix)
The cognitive dissonance becomes overwhelming around twelve minutes into the first episode of Working, a four-part docuseries by (and sort of starring) Barack Obama that premiered on Netflix on May 17. Each episode looks at a different category of job, ascending up the ranks: “Service Jobs,” “The Middle,” “Dream Jobs,” and “The Boss.”
The first episode follows three people who do service work: hotel housekeeper Elba, home care aide Randi, and delivery driver Carmen. At minute twelve, we follow Carmen as she delivers meals for Uber Eats. The camera zooms in on her phone’s display, where we can see the app’s interface. Carmen accepts a delivery order that the app tells her is $16.61 including the expected tip.
“They say that, but sometimes you don’t get a tip,” Carmen tells us, her voice edging into frustrated sarcasm by the end of the sentence. “Also, you don’t have their address, so it’s not like you have an idea of how far you’re gonna go,” she adds.
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