Career
"Severance" and Our Own Workplace Dystopias
What the popularity of Apple TV's "Severance" says about how we work.
Posted January 13, 2025 Reviewed by Gary Drevitch
Key points
- We can learn from "Severance." Its inhuman culture challenges us to build better workplaces.
- Team-building only works if it’s real. Like Lumon’s Melon Party, forced icebreakers fail to connect people.
- Employees need to see the meaning in their work; waffle parties, delicious as they may be, aren’t enough.
- Dehumanized leaders dehumanize others. When managers are treated poorly, it spreads through the workplace.
Ever forced a smile during a tone-deaf meeting or rolled your eyes at a cringey icebreaker? Apple TV+’s Severance takes these frustrations to dystopian extremes, offering a cutting critique of modern work culture.
For the uninitiated, Severance imagines a world where employees at Lumon Industries undergo a surgical procedure to completely “sever” their work and personal lives. On paper, this ultimate work-life balance sounds ideal: no personal baggage at work, no work stress at home. But as Season 1 shows, this supposed freedom is actually a prison that disconnects workers from themselves and each other.
Severance premiered nearly three years ago and struck a nerve, especially in the wake of COVID’s workplace upheavals. Its caricature of corporate life made us laugh—and cringe at how familiar it felt. With Season 2 premiering on January 17th, it’s the perfect time to reflect on that cringe and explore how to make our own workplaces a little less like Lumon’s world in Severance.
What Happened in Season 1
Adam Scott stars as Mark S., who chooses severance to escape the pain of losing his wife. Like all severed employees, he’s reduced to a first name and last initial—a subtle nod to the dehumanization to come. At Lumon, his “innie” self performs repetitive, meaningless tasks under the oppressive rule of Harmony Cobel (Patricia Arquette) and a faceless board. Employees get trivial perks like finger traps, and endure hollow rituals like waffle parties and the “break room,” where “wellness” serves as a euphemism for control and punishment.
The promise of work-life balance through being severed quickly turns into a nightmare. “Outies” struggle to connect with loved ones, while “innies” are trapped in a hollow existence, cut off from identity, purpose, and connection.
Cracks begin to form when Helly R. (Britt Lower) joins the team. Her defiance sparks questions about their treatment and the very nature of their existence. The season ends on a cliffhanger as the “innies” awaken in their outside lives, setting the stage for resistance and revelation in Season 2.
The Uncanny Valley
Like all great dystopian art, Severance isn’t just entertainment; it’s a mirror, reflecting uncomfortable truths about our own workplaces. Beneath the humor of the “Perpetuity Wing” and the “Egg Bar” are whiffs of idolized CEOs and out-of-touch managers in our own workplaces. These parallels aren’t just for laughs; they’re lessons. Here are three we can take from Severance:
1. Skip the Performative Team-Building. At Lumon, team-building is literally taken from a corporate manual. The Melon Party, with its canned speeches and forced smiles, epitomizes performative rituals that lack real care.
Team-building only works when employees are bought in and sense it’s authentic, not performative. Here’s a sign you might be missing the mark: The icebreaker or team bonding is the end of a conversation, not the beginning of one.
2. Purpose Beyond Waffle Parties. At Lumon, employees sort numbers without understanding their significance, chasing bizarre rewards like waffle parties or music dance experiences (“MDEs”).
In real life, employees thrive when they see how their work contributes to something larger. Recognition tied to meaningful outcomes fosters engagement and satisfaction far more effectively than superficial perks. How often do managers circle back to reinforce individual contribution by connecting their work to the mission?
3. Dehumanized People Dehumanize People. At Lumon, mistreatment flows from the top. Harmony Cobel enforces harsh policies with ruthless precision, but she herself is a pawn of the faceless and vindictive board. It’s a reminder that inhuman treatment at the top cascades downward: Hurt people hurt people.
Few ineffective leaders are villains like Cobel, but the pressure to hit targets and enforce policies from boards or their own managers can easily overshadow the human side of leadership. Breaking this cycle requires redefining leadership to support employee well-being and belonging, not just efficiency. How often are managers asked how their people are doing, not just how they’re performing?
Let’s Build Workplaces Nothing Like Lumon
The popularity of Severance isn’t just about acting and showrunning, although both are worth enjoying. The series resonates because it captures the disconnection many of us feel in our workplaces. Policies that reduce people to numbers and leaders who ignore genuine human emotion miss a fundamental truth: People cannot—and should not—separate their work and personal lives. It’s our whole selves that bring the creativity, compassion, collaboration, and resilience that make workplaces thrive.
As Season 2 unfolds, let’s move beyond hollow rewards and performative gestures to build workplaces where people feel genuinely valued and connected. Integration—not severance—is the key to making work meaningful and whole.
As we enjoy Severance, here’s my challenge: Let’s create workplaces so human-centered that Severance feels like a far-off dystopia, not a stinging critique of how we work.
