It was one of the first novels to anticipate a dystopian culture in the tech industry that would soon become the norm, and one particular scene in which an employee slips “flat foods” (such as slices of processed cheese) beneath the office door of another employee, to ensure that they actually eat while working, has haunted me for 20 years. Set on the Microsoft campus in Washington state, Microserfs explores the feudal-like work culture at the company: the employees the novel follows are the serfs presided over by Bill Gates. And so all fictional characters generally need a terrible job. Still, Ingrid doesn’t think her job is terrible – she thinks it’s great! She’s searching for total obliteration of the self and she finds it.Ī few years ago I came across a Grace Paley interview in which she stated she cannot write a character until she knows who their family are and where they get their money: a writing practice I fully endorse. Ingrid must prove her devotion to her job and to Keith as she engages in a series of cult-like tests. Keith is a devoted if ill-informed follower of wabi-sabi – a Japanese aesthetic tradition that celebrates transience and decay.

Ingrid, the heroine, works in one of the many gift shops when she is accepted on to a mysterious employee mentorship scheme, “the programme”, run by the ship’s captain, Keith. The employees on the ship work punishing short-term “rotations”, moving around different jobs (you might be a croupier for a while, then a photographer, then a customer services assistant, then a manicurist).

Microserfs by Douglas Coupland