The Circle

you. Let me show you. We’ll head back to your desk.
     Renata?”
    Renata followed them, carrying a small monitor, about the size of a notebook. She
     installed it at Mae’s desk and left.
    “Okay. So ideally you’ll be doing what Jared used to do with you, remember? Whenever
     there’s a stumper and it needs to be bounced up to a more seasoned person, you’ll
     be there. You’re the veteran now. Does that make sense?”
    “It does.”
    “Now the other thing is that I want the newbies to be able to ask you questions as
     they work. The easiest way will be on this screen.” He pointed to the small screen
     that had been placed under her main monitor. “You see something appear here you know
     it’s from someone in your pod, okay?” He turned on the new screen and typed out a
     question, “Mae, help me!” on his tablet, and the words appeared on this new, fourth,
     screen. “Does that seem easy enough?”
    “It does.”
    “Good. So the newbies will be here after Jared trains them. He’s doing it en masse
     as we speak. There will be twelve new people here by about eleven a.m., okay?”
    Dan thanked her and left.
    The load was heavy until eleven, but her rating was 98. There were a handful of sub-100s,
     and two lower-90s that she followed up on, and in most cases the customers corrected
     their rating to a 100.
    At eleven she looked up to see Jared leading a group into the room, all of them seeming
     very young, all of them stepping carefully, as if afraid to wake some unseen infant.
     Jared positioned each of them at a desk and the room, which had been utterly empty
     for weeks, was nearly full in a matter of minutes.
    Jared stood on a chair. “Okay everyone!” he said. “This is by far our quickest onboarding
     process. And our quickest training session. And our most maniacally fast first day.
     But I know you all can handle it. And I especially know you can handle it because
     I’ll be here all day to help, and Mae will be here, too. Mae, can you stand up?”
    Mae stood. But it was obvious that few of the newbies in the room could see her. “How
     about standing on your chair?” Jared asked, and Mae did so, straightening her skirt,
     feeling very silly and visible and hoping she would not fall.
    “The two of us will be here all day to answer questions and take stumpers. If you
     have a stumper just forward it, and it’ll be routed to whichever of us has the lightest
     load. If you have a question, same thing. Send it through the channel I showed you
     in the orientation, and it’ll go to one of us. Between me and Mae, you’ll be covered.
     Everyone feel good?” No one moved or said a word. “Good. I’ll open the chute again
     and we’ll go till twelve thirty today. Lunch will be shorter today to account for
     the training and all, but we’ll make it up to you on Friday. Everyone ready?” No one
     seemed ready. “Go!”
    And Jared jumped down, and Mae climbed down, arranged herself again, and was immediately
     thirty queries behind. She started on herfirst, and within a minute she had a question on her fourth screen, the one for newbies.
    Customer wants their entire payment record from last year. Available? And where?
    Mae directed the newbie to the right folder, then returned to the query in front of
     her. She continued this way, being pulled away from her own work every few minutes
     by a newbie question, until twelve thirty, when she saw Jared again, standing again
     on a chair.
    “Whoa. Whoa,” he said. “That’s lunch. Intense. Intense. Right? But we did it. Our
     overall average is at 93, which is normally not so good, but okay considering the
     new systems and increased flow. Congratulations. Get some food, some fuel, and see
     you at one p.m. Mae, see me when you can.”
    He jumped down again, and was at Mae’s desk before she could get to his. His expression
     was one of friendly concern.
    “You haven’t gone to the clinic.”
    “Me?”
    “Is that true?”
    “I guess so.”
    “You were supposed to have gone your first week.”
    “Oh.”
    “They’re waiting. Can you go today?”
    “Sure. Now?”
    “No, no. We’re too swamped right now, as you can see. How about at four? I can handle
     the last shift. And by the afternoon all of these newbies will be better honed. Did
     you have fun so far today?”
    “Sure.”
    “Stressed?”
    “Well, it adds a new layer to things.”
    “It does. It does. And there will be more layers, I want to assure you. I know