The Corporate Truths "Severance" Exposes Beyond the Pizza Parties & Gift Cards

Severance: A Corporate Reality We Know Too Well?

Can you imagine it's 8 AM, you walk into your office, sit at your neat desk, open your laptop, and have no recollection of who you are outside of work (your outie as they call it) Now, imagine the day is over, it's 5 PM and you are leaving your office with no memory of the hours you just spent inside. This is the world of Severance, the Apple TV+ show that takes us tripping to a workplace culture that you are probably familiar with. I can’t help but see unsettling parallels between Lumon Industries and real-life workplaces.

The Great Divide: Creative vs. Financial Departments

One of the themes that kept me hooked all the time is the separation between departments, particularly between those responsible for numbers and those driving creativity. Anyone who has worked in a corporate setting knows how these two "benches" are in continuous "disagreement". Marketing vs. Finance. Communications vs. Accounting. The creatives push for engagement, storytelling, and innovation, while the financial teams focus on budgets, risk management, and return on investment. In theory, both serve the same company, yet in practice, they often speak entirely different languages, sometimes even working against each other rather than together.

The Illusion of Corporate Friendships

Additionally, one more thing has caught my attention: the awkward and forced friendships of the office culture. The breakroom celebrations, the exaggerated team-building exercises, and the bizarre prizes like finger traps and waffle parties are exaggerated for satire, yet they don’t feel entirely fictional. Can you recall how many times have you seen someone in your team (or experienced yourself) being offered free pizzas or gift cards as compensation for months of overwork? A small token of “appreciation” after a whole year can feel more like an inside joke than a genuine reward.

Coworker Relationships: Genuine Bonds or Mere Proximity?

The series also highlights the strange dynamics of workplace relationships. The bonds formed in the office are often intense yet confined to that environment. Just like Lumon’s employees, many of us have experienced friendships that feel essential within the confines of work but dissolve as soon as we step outside. Severance forces us to ask: Are these real connections, or just survival mechanisms in an environment designed to keep us isolated?

A Call for a Better Workplace Culture

While Severance is, of course, an extreme scenario, its commentary on corporate life feels all too familiar. The empty rewards and the transactional nature of workplace relationships are things many employees around the world experience daily. But unlike Lumon’s employees, we have the power to push for change; whether by advocating for a better workplace culture, meaningful recognition, or a genuine work-life balance that doesn’t require us to mentally “sever” our personal and professional lives.

So, while we may not be stepping into a windowless office with no memory of the outside world, let’s ask ourselves: How different is our reality from Lumon’s after all?