5 Lessons From "Severance" You Can Apply At Work (No, Not The Office Romance)

When my dad was in Iraq, he instilled in my siblings and myself the importance of identifying occasions and events to look forward to. Over a decade later, we now live in a world of instant gratification that eliminates any sort of anticipatory expectation. 

Rarely must we wait for anything when the world is at our fingertips, yet wait I do. I plan out vacations months in advance. I buy myself gifts in October and stash them away for Christmas. I purposely hunt on Facebook Marketplace and at thrift stores instead of finding that vintage hutch on Zara Home. In other words, I fast before I feast—because it makes the feast so much sweeter.

And now, my husband finally understands why I do this, thanks to the hit series Severance, Apple TV’s award-winning psychological thriller. Not only did we have to wait three years for Season 2, but together we eagerly count down the days until the latest episode is released, our anticipation building for the new episode to drop on Friday night. 

To say I’m a fan girl of this show is a bit of an understatement. I’ve read every theory out there and stay awake at night debunking them.

Aside from the witty dialogue and insane attention to detail that thickens the intrigue and paranoia, there’s also innumerable lessons that we can learn and take back to work each Monday after watching Severance. 

Lesson #1: Befriend Your Coworkers 

We see the main characters Mark, Irv, Dylan, and Helly grow in relationship with one another throughout season one, which culminated to one epic and “pitch perfect adrenaline rush” cliffhanger—when the Macrodata Refinement employees’ teamwork building exercises were put to the ultimate test. The season’s finale received rave reviews—CBR called it “iconic,” and this Redditt user even claimed that the finale was “maybe one of the best television episodes of all time.”  

Imagine our pain when we then had to wait three years to find out what happens next.

When season two premiered earlier this year, we get to see our favorite team together again, but we learn early on (I promise, no spoilers), that blind trust isn’t as easy when we’re hit with, well, more data.

Without each other, Mark, Irv, Dylan and Helly would be suffering alone at Lumon, and it doesn’t take long for them to realize in either season the utter necessity to rely on each other to avoid their work life being utter hell. Their trust of one another is paramount to their insane endeavor to communicate with their Outties and flip a big one to Lumon. 

I can’t help but admit that their commitment to one another has made me question my own work relationships. How often do we forge face-level relationships with those we work with? Sure, your coworkers don’t have to be your BFFs, but do we invest ourselves at all when Monday morning rolls around? Do we ask more than the minimal, “How was your weekend?” when we’re gathered around the Keurig? 

When we consider that the average person spends 81,396 hours — the equivalent of more than nine years — at work, we are forced to admit that we will spend way more time with our fellow Innies (so to speak) than our actual friends. Having strong relationships with coworkers can have significant benefits in the workplace. According to Gallup, employees who have a close friend at work are 7 times more likely to be engaged in their job. Employees who are engaged with their coworkers and feel a sense of friendship at work are 50% less likely to leave their job than those who don't have these connections.

So yeah, remember your coworker’s boyfriend’s name.

Lesson #2: You Need To Find Value In Your Work

At Lumon, the Macrodata Refinement team spend forty hours a week on work that has no meaning to them. What they actually do and are contributing to is a total mystery to both them and us. But viewers are quick to relate. 

Who else pounds their head on their desk multiple times a week, wondering if what we do means anything at all? Kat Rosenfield writes, “The compulsive watchability of Severance stems from its ability to tap into the deep well of dissatisfaction that lurks beneath the surface of American corporate life…The nature of modern life is that an awful lot of Americans spend the bulk of our waking hours toiling away at a job that we know, deep down, means nothing—or very little, at least.”

According to Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace report, approximately 60% of employees feel that their work lacks meaning or purpose. That’s insane.

But it gets even worse.

In the same report, 19% of workers feel miserable at their job. 

Lumon tries to keep Mark and Co. engaged by offering incentives like mellon parties and Chinese finger traps, but there’s a point where we have to throw up our hands and say “Enough.”

If you are there too, it’s time to consider new work.

Lesson #3: Trust Your Authorities

It’s no secret that Lumon’s board are collectively the bad guys…or at least, we think. And though the writers behind Severance are constantly making us second guess characters’ motives, we are led to believe that those in direct line-of-command like Ms. Cobel and Mr. Milchick (“Yeah, do it SETH” — #IYKYK) are also up to no good.

That’s less than ideal for the Macrodata Refinement team and doesn’t necessarily set them up for success.

Developing trust with your supervisor, boss, director—whatever you have—is critical to thriving at your workplace. According to Patrick Lencioni's The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, trust is considered the most critical foundation for a successful team, as it is the first and most fundamental dysfunction, meaning without trust, a team cannot effectively address the subsequent dysfunctions like fear of conflict, lack of commitment, avoidance of accountability, and inattention to results. In other words, a boss is supposed to be part of a team—your team, and there needs to be a healthy amount of vulnerability and openness with each other to build a strong foundation for collaboration and achievement.

A McKinsey & Company study found that teams with high levels of trust are 2.5 times more likely to perform at a higher level because it leads to clearer communication, more effective collaboration, and a shared sense of purpose. 

If there’s no trust between your boss and yourself, it’s crucial that you address it. How? Get HR involved. Address past conflicts. State your intentions. Place an emphasis on clarity.

Lesson #4: Integration, Not Balance 

The greatest lesson I learned from a previous boss was something that the Innies and Outties would have benefited a lot from hearing. In brief, my boss admitted to struggling with balancing it all: work and leisure, a demanding job that often seeped into personal life…you get it.

But he had a breakthrough. He said, “It’s not about balancing everything so much as integrating it.” 

The whole point of Severance is that the office workers severe themselves from their outside selves. We learn real fast that this isn’t a good thing. What we should strive for is to not turn into some alternative “second-self” (as best-selling author and sociologist Sherry Turkle would put it) when we are at work, but we should strive to integrate who we are outside of work in a wholesome way. I’ll never forget how wild it was when I started my current job and learned that employee’s kids were volunteers—but it shouldn’t feel wild at all.

Obviously, healthy boundaries are good to set, but by working on integration we can live more authentically as ourselves without segregating parts of ourselves. 

Lesson #5: Understand That Your Work Doesn’t Define You

It’s time to stop valuing what we do over who we are—and I’m not talking about who we are at work (reread Lesson #4 if you need a refresher already). In Dr. Ricken’s groundbreaking and recently published self-help book The You You Are, he shares, “But what, indeed, is You? How can You mean different things to millions [of people] around a vast earth? And, perhaps most importantly, who are You?”

Research published in the Journal of Occupational Health Psychology shows that employees who derive too much of their identity from their job are more likely to experience higher levels of anxiety and depression. The constant pressure to perform can create a sense of inadequacy when professional setbacks occur, affecting mental well-being.

Some of the best moments from Severance are when we catch glimpses of who the Innies are on the outside—Mark’s relationship with his brother-in-law, Dylan watching TV with his kids, and Irv wrestling with his dark and mysterious past. 

Let’s trade ambition, competition, greed, and success for what the Innies are fighting tooth and nail for: freedom to know who they truly are.