Working. It's what most of us do for half our waking lives. It's how we feed and clothe ourselves and how we support our families. It shapes our sense of who we are, and of where we fit in the scheme of things.

Working is also what connects us. Almost everything around us is the product of human labor—much of it performed in faraway places, by people we will never meet.

Each month, WORKING brings us into the life of a single worker in the global economy. Intimate profiles of real people with real families, real struggles, real dreams, and real jobs.

Raffaella Mangiarotti

Job:

Industrial Designer
Location:

Milan, Italy
Income:

$7,000/month
Patents:

13
Invention:

Centripetal force washing machine

Look at the ordinary objects around you and you see the fruits of many people's labor: miners, factory workers, traders, investors. But who dreams these things up in the first place? As an industrial designer based in Milan, Italy, Raffaella Mangiarotti is part artist, part inventor, part engineer—and full-time problem solver.

Past Stories

Upcoming Story

Svitlana Svystun's life with The Great Moscow State Circus is nothing if not nomadic. She's a Ukrainian dancer performing an Argentinean "gaucho" act for audiences all over Britain. Most of the year she lives in a six-meter long caravan with her ringmaster husband Andrey and their three-year-old son Maxim. She does two performances a day, six days a week, squeezing them in around her duties as a mom. She likes bringing the storied tradition of Russian circus to the UK. But the roar of the crowd is what really keeps her going.

Do you know a remarkable worker we should profile? The job must be outside the United States, and teach us something about our globalizing world.

Work connects us all. Tell us about yours and we will connect you to other workers around the world.