There are very few shows which accurately portray the absurdity of the modern corporate life. In the recent past, I have only liked The Office for its satirical portrayal of the workplace. So when a friend recommended Severance, I was curious to see what Ben Stiller and team had put together. Even though the first season came out in 2022, I only got around to it last weekend. And I was blown away, both by the plot as well as their attention to detail.
As a sci-fi thriller, the premise of the show seems straightforward – workers at a certain corporation decide to medically alter their brain to switch between their workplace selves and their outer selves. This creates a clear boundary between the two identities with no memory overlap except that each knows that they are ‘severed’ employees of the Lumon corporation.
But this piece is not about the plot itself (no spoilers), it is about the setting in which majority of the action takes place – the Lumon Corporation. It is a fitting metaphor for the modern workplace and the details portrayed capture the idiosyncrasies of the office quite appropriately.
Let’s start with the obsession with acronyms. This I am guilty of as well, both professionally and personally(and I need to stop!). Acronyms were first used in the military for efficiency and secrecy. And like most things, they have found a use in the corporate world. But they also tend to be exclusionary in nature. Imagine the plight of a new joinee in your team who has a hard time keeping up with the abbreviations in common use. Likewise the show launches a volley of acronyms on the viewer – the OND, MDR, OTC and MDE and not always bothering to explain what do they stand for.
While the viewer keeps up, the show also underscores the emphasis on core principles – nine words which seem to be put together to reflect a meaningful philosophy of the founders. Such lofty value statements which are aspirational are part of the standard corporate tool kit. Certain corporations do go to far lengths to incorporate these values into their everyday operations, systems of recognition whereas in other places, they seem to be just hollow words with no clear implications or a real purpose.
Next comes the work itself. It is unclear in the first season what the Macro Data Refinement team (where the protagonists work) actually does. The numbers seem vague but the instructions to operate the machine are provided in detail. What are they actually refining? This is kept deliberately ambiguous. This ignorance of one’s work is the bane of the corporate world where employees sometimes never understand why the work they do really matters. Or what really is the big picture and where do they situate themselves in the scheme of things.
Similarly, the almost clinical divisions between various departments and almost no effort to integrate them shows the silo-based work which is the other bane of the modern workplace. This is further heightened by anonymising the key decision maker and masking them as “the board” or “management”. “This was a management call” is one of the commonly used phrases in corporate communiques which reflects the opacity of decision making.
In the same vein, the focus on the short term in many organisations is made evident by Lumon’s focus on quarterly numbers. There is no reference to annual targets or a longer horizon. In fact certain departments also lament on the changing priorities every time. The longer term plans of Lumon are not known but their excessively myopic view is a clever tongue in cheek poke at the obsession with the quarter commonly seen across board rooms.
Family run corporations often give an exalted status to the founders and their lineage, who often are the next in line for leadership roles. They often enjoy privileges absent even to the professionals employed at the top rung. The show mimics this by giving an almost demi-god status to the founder Kier and subsequently to the entire Eagan lot. The wax statues of the past CEOs, the documented philosophy, the everyday references – all hark back to the contributions of the founding family.
One recurring joke especially for those in HR has been the irrelevance of fun and wellness activities and celebrations. The employees and planners of such events are often at odds when it comes to agreeing upon their importance, relevance and efficacy. Likewise, the Wellness Room, Musical Dance Experience, Eggs Spread and the Waffle Parties – given to employees on achieving their numbers represent those often joked about pizza parties. The show critiques these trivial morale boosting ideas. These lopsided incentives show the disproportionate nature of rewards and recognition. They also highlight the absurdity of certain rituals which continue unquestioned and encourage conformity to the corporate identity.
There are other deeper themes which have come to become an accepted part of the corporate life which are also highlighted well. The need to be available at the will of the corporation – which raises the question of ownership of time and boundaries between the two worlds, the excessive surveillance – the use of hundreds of CCTVs, online trackers, restricted network usage, authentication and verification at each check point, time tracking and an almost passive aggressive style of supervision are all in some degrees part of many organisations. The use of Break Room as a euphemism shows how at times language can used to conceal far more malicious intentions. They say the toxicity of the modern workplace is an accepted phenomenon but portraying the banality of evil without making it the central plot is where the genius of Severance lies.
The creators of the show have given deep thought to the identity of the modern day worker. Even a cursory watch is enough to spot these patterns. In a way Severance has surpassed the established benchmarks of portraying a dystopian workplace and a dystopian world itself. It manages to raise the fundamental question of choice of giving up control. The performances are brilliant, the background score on point and the plot is gripping. I am looking forward to season 3.