Severance

I didn't know the meaning of this term until very recently when I started watching the excellent show with the same name on Apple TV+.?Severance's plot is very disruptive: a group of employees of a big corporation, Lumon, agree to have a chip implanted in their brains that?bifurcates?their memories when they step into the elevator that takes them to their office. This sees them forgetting everything about their personal lives and focusing only on work and, more importantly, the other way around: once outside the building they remember nothing about their jobs. In what could be said to be the ultimate application of confidentiality agreements, Lumon’s policies forbid the?innies?to communicate with their?outies?and the company can discover if they try to by means of a detector of any form of code or written language an employee takes inside the lift.

Although it is sprinkled with some humor,?Severance?is an extremely perturbing thriller. I think this is because its plot reflects an extrapolation of some dynamics in today’s real-world offices: who hasn't tried to leave work problems at the office rather than bringing them home or, vice versa, temporary forget their family issues by totally focusing on work? In fact, the latter is also the dream scenario (or even stated goal) of some bosses to increase productivity.

But such a home/work severance is probably impossible and even Lumon, with its extremely sophisticated technology, is unable to avoid some minor leaks between these two worlds that end up with several parallel dramas (sorry for the spoiler but you’ve probably already guessed that). My colleague Patricia expressed this very well several years ago in this?video: you are the same person outside and inside and don't leave your problems at the door like hanging your coat on a peg or in the lift, like Lumon staff do.

At Vortex I try to always remember the above although sometimes it is not easy to empathize. Remembering does not mean that work should be a refuge for outside problems (our company is not a charity) but, at least, trying not to increase worries people will unavoidably bring home when leaving the office.