TV show Severance looks at workplace personalities. There are healthier ways to separate home and office life
- Written by Lena Wang, Associate Professor in Management, RMIT University
The highly anticipated season two of Severance[1], released in weekly instalments, has continued to draw interest among viewers around the world.
A gripping psychological thriller, this TV series provides an extreme illustration of the compartmentalising of work and personal life.
In the show, “severed” workers agree to a surgical procedure where a device is implanted into the brain to split their memory and experiences in two.
Once severed, “innies” go to work with no knowledge of the lives and families of their “outies”. And “outies” have no recollection of the activities they performed or the relationships they developed while their “innies” were at work.
Back in the real world, the hybrid work revolution has led to a seismic shift in work habits. For some, that’s made it harder to mark where work ends and home starts. But there are still healthy ways to keep our personal and professional lives separate.
A seismic shift in work habits
Severance’s first season in 2022 premiered in the wake of the global pandemic, when lockdowns forced most workers to work from home for an extended period of time.
Now, three years later, many employees are still working in a hybrid mode.
Data from 2024[2] shows more than one third of Australian still regularly work from home. This arrangement is especially prevalent among knowledge workers[3]. Knowledge-based workers are generally office workers, whose roles can be performed remotely.
At the same time, fully remote work is also increasing[4], and some workers are exploring a digital nomad[5] lifestyle which allows them to travel and live anywhere in the world while working remotely.
The hybrid work model is clearly the business model of choice for the future from the perspective of workers, although some employers are pushing back[6].
But hybrid work creates an ongoing challenge for workers who want to create psychological boundaries between work and home domains.
Creating boundaries between work and home
People go to great lengths to construct and manage the psychological boundaries between work and the other activities[7] in their personal lives, such as spending time with family, engaging in the community, or practising self-care.
Examples of these boundaries can include an out-of-office reply to notify others of your set working hours, leaving your laptop at work over the weekend or removing work email apps from your personal phone.
As human beings we crave boundaries that allow us to better focus our attention and be more present in respective life domains.
Severance provides a critical look at how far workers might go to achieve work-life segregation. Take the character Mark S., who underwent the severance procedure to escape the grief of losing his wife and block that part of his personal life from his working life. Or at least, that’s what we’ve been led to believe.
Similar to the confrontational and somewhat thorny style of TV series Black Mirror[9], Severance challenges the audience by presenting a futuristic and innovative method to reduce the tensions people experience when psychological boundaries are not managed.
Can we sever our identities across domains?
Creating sensible boundaries across life domains is desirable. But Severance helps us examine how we can’t shut off our home selves completely. Towards the end of season one, the show’s “innies” keep attempting to make contact with their “outies” to find out who they truly are outside work.
Indeed, personality research[10] shows that while we can take on somewhat different personas in different life domains, our human need for consistency produces enduring self-concepts and patterns of behaviour.
Consistency is necessary to maintain the integrity of the self, providing the foundation for us to effectively adapt to different social environments and develop positive wellbeing.
Research also shows when workers feel they can be bring their authentic selves to work, they experience a sense of self-actualisation[12], as well as higher job satisfaction and lower burnout[13]. Without these protective elements, it’s no wonder Helly R. repeatedly tried to escape the severed floor.
Achieving meaning at work
What is also striking about the work lives of those on the severed floor is how meaningless their jobs appear to be. Throughout season one and into season two, we never truly understand the nature and purpose of their jobs at the mysterious corporation Lumon Industries.
We know that meaningless, or “bullshit” jobs[14] in the words of American anthropologist David Graeber, are associated with poor mental health[15]. Unfavourable working conditions such as poor management and toxic culture can aggravate this issue, making meaningful work become meaningless[16].
In this sense, if we cannot sever our “innies” and “outies” as shown in Severance, negative work experiences would spill over to our family lives, causing a downward spiral[17].
Restoring the meaning and purpose in our jobs not only improves our work experiences, but also boosts our self-esteem[18] and enriches our personal lives[19]. This can be done by improving work design, leadership and organisational culture.
As season two continues, Severance will continue posing sticky ethical questions for us to ponder about the role of work in our lives. While the answers may not be forthcoming, the mysterious twists are almost guaranteed.
Severance is now streaming on Apple TV+
References
- ^ Severance (tv.apple.com)
- ^ Data from 2024 (www.ceda.com.au)
- ^ prevalent among knowledge workers (www.pwc.com.au)
- ^ increasing (www.weforum.org)
- ^ digital nomad (hbr.org)
- ^ pushing back (www.afr.com)
- ^ work and the other activities (theconversation.com)
- ^ Andrey Popov/Shutterstock (www.shutterstock.com)
- ^ Black Mirror (www.netflix.com)
- ^ personality research (bristoluniversitypress.co.uk)
- ^ Shutterstock (www.shutterstock.com)
- ^ self-actualisation (link.springer.com)
- ^ higher job satisfaction and lower burnout (doi.org)
- ^ “bullshit” jobs (www.penguin.com.au)
- ^ are associated with poor mental health (doi.org)
- ^ making meaningful work become meaningless (doi.org)
- ^ downward spiral (doi.org)
- ^ boosts our self-esteem (doi.org)
- ^ enriches our personal lives (www.emerald.com)
Authors: Lena Wang, Associate Professor in Management, RMIT University
