Is “Severance” the Answer?
Students watching Severance. Photo by Amanda Nessel '25
Do you ever wish you could unsee the other side of that friend you chose to work with on a group project and forget awkwardly begging them to finish their section on time while at dinner together?
They say it's best to keep your work and personal life separate. The show “Severance” displays this concept in an alternate reality where a medical procedure is created to split individuals into an “innie” and an “outie,” each version only being aware of their designated section of life. In your work life, you forget everything about your personal life and vice versa.
One of the hardest parts of being a college student is balancing classes, studying, a social life, clubs, sports, meals and rest. It could sound pretty appealing to split your work and personal life so that your Friday night doesn’t get ruined by an Outlook email announcing your midterm exam grade has been released. No more spending full days in the library staring at your laptop until you get a headache… and you still get the degree, skills and knowledge?
However, as a student, there is no clocking in and out of your studies. With some schedules including three classes in a day and hour-long breaks in between, your innie and outie would both suffer from serious whiplash. Unlike aesthetic TikToks that romanticize corporate life, students aren’t quite living the “5-to-9 after their 9-to-5” life just yet.
As a senior looking ahead to post-grad life, Nicholas Suchy ‘25 plans on setting strict boundaries between his work and personal life.
“I don’t want to be on my work email when I’m on vacation or be contacted on a day off,” said Suchy. “It shouldn’t be Christmas morning and I have to wake up early to answer an email, everyone needs to take some time off.”
Suchy believes severance would help with burnout in a way, but the show demonstrates some of the major issues.
“Taking it at face value, there are a lot of benefits to it, you could say you’re less stressed and less burnt out,” said Suchy. “But seeing the turmoil in the show and discrimination against those who get severed, I would not get it.”
With iPhones, remote work, and flexible schedules, is severance even possible?
Many jobs require you to have teams or work email on your personal phone or even to carry around a work phone with you. Remote work has you working in the same place you sleep, eat and lounge. 9-to-5 jobs are becoming less common, and with flexible working hours or different time zones, many people now find themselves working odd hours and irregular shifts.
One potential benefit of the severed life is students' separating attention spans. Generation Z is notoriously known to have bad attention spans, accumulated from doom scrolling, listening to podcasts while working and constantly checking phones. If Generation Z were able to separate their personal lives’ effect on their attention spans, imagine how productive their work selves could be.
For the 9-to-5’s that still do exist out there, the idea of becoming a “corporate zombie” is a real fear for many. Adopting corporate jargon and hearing the same phrases used over and over again is far from appealing. For those heading towards corporate careers, the severance procedure certainly has its benefits.
For Evelyn Benitez ‘25, a psychology and studio art major, it all depends on the career. “For me, it’s different because I’m an artist, so I put a lot of my personal life into my art and my work,” she said.
“When it comes to psychology, it’s important for your innie to have social cues, be able to read body language, and empathize. Having the basics of society helps you out so you don’t have to build them from scratch.” Overall, Benitez sees the struggles of college as worth it for the satisfaction of graduating.