Olmi's film is an update version of neo-realism with a cast of non-professionals. In a recent interview, Olmi mentions that the "star" of the film, Sandro Panseri, was now a supermarket manager. The object of Panseri's tentative affections, Loredana Detto, left acting to become Mrs. Ermanno Olmi. The documentary flavor comes from shooting in the streets of Milan and the Lombardy countryside, and especially inside the office building with the miles of hallways, and cramped and badly lit working spaces. There is a montage that almost seems like a non sequitur until the realization comes that one is watching excerpts of the lives of some of the staff outside of the office, a reminder that one's working life is not always how one thinks of oneself.

The ending of the film is perhaps more ambiguous than Olmi intended, or at least is up for more than one interpretation. Panseri has finally been promoted from messenger to clerk, in part the result of the sudden death of one of the employees. The former employee's desk turns out to represent a degree of status and seniority, meaningful only to those who have dutifully shown up for several years. In some ways these fellow employees may remind some of Takashi Shimura's characters in Ikiru, who showed up to work every day because he was afraid that if he was absent, he would not be missed. The film ends with a close up of Panseri to the sound of a loud mimeograph machine. While Olmi has claimed that Panseri is looking to his life beyond the office, one could also read this shot as that of someone who realizes that his goal has turned out to be far less than what he had hoped for, with little promise for the future, especially if the lives of his older co-workers is any indication. Even though Il Posto is partially autobiographical, while Olmi's life as a young office worker eventually lead to a career as a documentary, and narrative filmmaker, the more typical scenario is that the promotion to low level office worker is as far into the future as many would ever see.