I just finished watching Severance on Apple TV. The idea is simple but terrifying: what if your work self and personal self were completely disconnected? A clean split done by surgery and a chip implanted into your brain! No memory of home while you’re at work, no memory of work when you’re home.
It’s sci-fi, but after watching, I saw myself in it. I had a realization: this isn’t fiction. The chip doesn’t exist, but the concept does. I’ve been unknowingly severed for 17 years. The norm and culture of severance were fed to me, and now, in this giant company, I am fully severed.
No one implanted a device in my brain. No one explicitly told me, “You must disconnect your personal self from work.” But the concept of work-life balance, workplace perks like games, food, and small celebrations, all of it engaged me so much that I dedicated myself fully to work when I was at work. Every morning, I stepped into the office, left my real self at the door, and became the “work version” of me. Performance-driven. Focused. Pushing people because that’s what the job required. Then, at the end of the day, I left, switched back, and tried not to think about it to control stress and leave work behind the door of my house.
You are also severed if you believe: “It’s just business, nothing personal”, “leave your personal problems at the door”, “work hard, play hard”, “you are lucky to have the job”, “you have a family at work”.
Where did this come from? Was it my parents, who were also employees? Was it my first boss? Was it society’s way of training us to be productive? My wife, who told me, “No work at home”? My skip manager, who asked me, “Are you ready to become a manager? Because you’ll have to make tough decisions and do whatever company policy asks of you.” I don’t know. But I do know companies don’t ask us to sever ourselves. They make us think it’s normal.
Now I feel played by big players, doing things and justifying them by saying, “It’s just work.”
I have been a severed employee without even knowing it. They think this separation is necessary, but now I know I can do the job as my real self. I can start asking questions when my real self (my outie in the film) feels something is wrong. I know they don’t want you to questions at work but follow orders. Don’t question the system but become part of it.
In Episode 3, Season 2, Mark S., a severed employee, realizes how they played him and tries to reintegrate his mind. This is me now—Episode 17 of my severed work life. I have to ask questions at work like what I do in personal life, why this policy? Why this order?
I’m not saying it’s all bad. Some level of separation might help us control work stress, avoid bringing it home and make wife happy, keep personal emotions from interfering with work. But I didn’t choose to sever myself. It was programmed into me, gradually, through.
This is how power systems work. manipulating people without them even knowing it.
Mohsin With E 
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