Margaret looked away from her phone. She would probably be fine. At least, she had to carry on as if she’d be fine, if there was any chance of her being fine in the end. She looked back and there was a new message from the company that contracted her for a company that contracted them for the social media platform. The message gave very clear instructions about what to tell the moderators. She got off the floor and went to her desk. She had a nice office now. It was at the front of the house, so she could watch the street go by and the sun came in for most of the morning. She sat at her computer. She should probably get something to drink or eat – a cup of tea or an apple, then she saw her flask beside the computer still half full of ginger water. She took a swig. It was exactly what she needed.

The computer woke up and she drafted a message to the moderators, copying and pasting from the contractor’s one. Before she could send it, there were more messages from the moderators. Some of them had been asked to pass on information – by customers, by the contracting company, by people who said they were from the social media platform. In a perfect world, the message she was writing would be sent by a people manager, but there was a gap – as soon as anyone imagines a job being done by non-humans then the people doing that job stop acting like people. So, there was no manager. She was the one they contacted most often, so she was the one they contacted now. That’s why the contractor had sent her the ‘What to say’ email, because they knew there was no one else and she was the one the moderators would contact. She had no real authority or experience to be writing the message. What they did was up to them, she typed at the end, after the corporate-speak she’d copied and pasted, but there was no need to do anything they didn’t want to, or they felt was wrong. They couldn’t be compelled to give over any information. She sent the message, knowing it would stop some messages but start a whole new group of them from people who hadn’t quite put two and two together. Someone high up would read it, too, so there was a chance she’d have to explain her ad-lib. She was playing both sides – part of the problem and part of the solution. It was unethical but also necessary. Everything was hidden under layers of deceit. She just needed to navigate it all for a couple of days, and no one would pay her any attention and she’d be fine.