Clickwork

Work in the sun, they said.

Pia moved to Lisbon for the light, the sea and a fresh start. She found a turnstile, a locker, a glass bottle she was allowed to drink from, a status button for the toilet and a video call with no title that started in ten seconds.

For years she answered the phones of companies she never worked for. She was ranked on a screen she could not switch off, crowned top performer on a pasted-on beach, and measured by numbers she never saw. She apologised for other people's mistakes, signed contracts without reading them and never, ever made a fuss.

Then she was asked to sign a warning letter for "lack of empathy". For the first time in her life, she didn't.

Clickwork is a funny and painfully honest memoir from the other end of the line. It takes you inside the outsourcing industry that answers your calls: open-plan offices with security airlocks, home offices with a supervisor in the living room, emails full of confetti and software that is quietly learning to do the job. It is also the story of a woman who discovers that a signature is not the last word, and that one small, polite "no" can stop a very large machine.

For everyone who has ever been put on hold.