I read The Circle back in August while on a family vacation in San Francisco/Silicon Valley. Needless to say this made Dave Egger’s exploration of life and culture in a dystopian, data-centric near-future all the more depressing.
Mae Holland is thrilled when a good friend from college recruits her to come to work at The Circle. Mae starts at the bottom, as a call center customer service rep who fields calls from world-wide clients to help make sure their experience of Circle products and services is always rated at 100%. Mae’s group continually circles back to the clients to confirm their total satisfaction. Mae sends friendly emails requesting ratings for how well she has done the job and reaches out repeatedly to ensure every one of her customers is happy.