The Circle - Dave Eggers
The job Mae Holland landed was one that millions worldwide would have readily called their dream job. Just 24, Mae departed the stodgy every-day business world forever and started a new career on the Silicon Valley campus occupied by The Circle. Everyone knew The Circle: it was the company that had invented TruYou, and with one keystroke stripped the final vestiges of anonymity from the Internet. Apparently the old cartoon was wrong: on the Internet, people do know you're a dog.
Mae’s started on the corporate ladder’s bottom rung, in Customer Experience. Her job was to answer questions for Circle clients all over the world. After every client interaction, she sent a survey; if the rating didn't hit 100, she sent a follow-up requesting clarification and a re-rate (then another follow-up if the first didn't raise her to perfect). As she became ever more deeply embedded in Circle society, the screen count on her workstation increased: one for work, another for responding to queries by her trainees, a third for the ongoing social interaction with in- and out-Circle Friends, then another to answer surveys to guide Circle clients' marketing strategies; finally nine screens in total. What a multitasker Mae became!
