Severance
"Okay, who here has seen Severance?"
Phoebe sheepishly raised her hand and looked around. Maybe 90% of the 50 or so people in the small auditorium raised their hands with the same level of unease. Made sense. The ad specifically referenced the show. "All the benefits of separating your work life from your leisure time...with none of the drawbacks" Phoebe found herself drawn here out of a mix of intense curiosity...and financial desperation.
She was sure a lot of the people here were here for the same reason. The amount of money being offered...was just too tempting not to investigate further. Phoebe thought of her student loans which loomed in her thoughts often.
The woman at the front of the room continued.
"Okay, for the 5 of you who have been living under a rock, the premise of Severance is that you can have a procedure done, wherein your work self and your non-work self are essentially split. Your work-self knows only work, and your non-work self knows only life outside work. So, one enjoys a life of unlimited leisure...while the other one toils for that other life."
The woman, Dr. Frohm, Phoebe would learn, paced up front, looking around to make sure the words were sinking in. There was something slightly authoritarian about her. A white lab coat over a dark suit. Only her leather boots suggested something less than purely professional. It gave her unneeded height. From her vantage point in the front row, Phoebe guessed she topped 6' with the boots. She seemed to be intentionally exerting dominance. Phoebe wondered if she was comfortable in that coat. The room was a bit stuffy. Too many people. She'd already ditched her sweater, but was still feeling warm. It was making her slightly sleepy. She took another sip from the complimentary water bottle the company had handed out as they filed in.
"But here's the rub," said the woman, "imagine a life of endless work; the work-life half of their lives...could be as miserable as it sounds. How resentful you would be of your leisure self! No rest, no sleep, the moment your work day ends...the next one begins. If I had to take up one issue with that show...it would be that. They failed to capture the absolute drudgery of endless work...I mean...they are touching upon it...but not to the degree I think they should."
Dr. Frohm stopped to clear her throat.
"Excuse me." She went over to the podium and took a long draw from her water bottle. Phoebe and most everyone did the same.
"I apologize for the temperature. I've put in a request for engineering to see if they can lower it a bit. I notice that some of you are looking a bit drowsy. I hope it's because of the temperature and not because I am boring you!"
There was a small titter of laughter in the room.
"However!" Dr. Frohm resumed, "There would be several tremendous benefits to a real-life Severance scenario! The first and foremost: security and discretion. Imagine for a moment you are a company with highly volatile secrets! Perhaps a defense contractor. Or any industry
where trade secrets are a premium item! Perhaps you know the secret formula for Coca-Cola, or the Colonial's 12 herbs and spices!"
More laughter.
"Actually, why don't we try an experiment? Indulge me for a moment, if you will... Allow your eyes to close and imagine the following scenario. Go ahead and close them now."
Dr. Frohm waved her hand down and Phoebe closed her eyes. It actually felt quite good to close her eyes for a moment. She was growing quite tired in this warm room.
As if reading her mind Dr. Frohm said, "It probably feels good to finally close those eyes in this overly warm room, right? To just allow those tired, sleepy eyes to finally droop closed... "
Phoebe unconsciously nodded her head in agreement.
"Well what I'd like you to imagine is that you are sitting at a desk working for a top secret organization, let's say it's the NSA, the National Security Agency, or as we call it, No Such Agency."
Phoebe smiled. Funny.
"Now let's imagine you are looking at your computer screen. It's hard to visualize text, so let's imagine an image. How about...thinking of someone you care about. Or someones. Or any face that's very familiar to you. Something you have no trouble imagining. Or it could be something simple, like a cube or a memory, like your childhood bedroom."
"What if you don't have visual imagination?" Phoebe heard a voice next to her say.
"Good point." Dr. Frohm replied. "About 2-5% of the population can't visually imagine anything. Aphantasia. Out of curiosity, raise your hand if you can't visually imagine anything."
After a moment Dr. Frohm said, "Well it looks like it's just you sir. For this exercise try to think of these things as memories, rather than mental images. And the rest of you...do you have a mental image? This image on the screen...is it clear to you?"
Phoebe nodded yes again. She was thinking of her boyfriend. His handsome face. Twinkly mischievous eyes and scraggly wild beard.r.
"Good...and now imagine this image is top secret. Highly top secret. A state secret of great importance. Just by viewing this image puts you and everyone you know and care about at great risk. But that's the brilliant part of Severance. If your work life and non-work life know nothing of each other, those secrets are completely safe. That's what organizations want. Security knowing their secrets are safe."
Phoebe felt a wave of calm wash over her. Safe. She understood the need to feel safe and to keep the people she loved safe.
"Now go ahead and try and open your eyes, I'm sure they might feel very heavy and sleepy, but I know you all can do it. We all know how good it feels to close your eyes for a while"
Dr. Frohm was right. Her eyes were quite heavy and it did feel quite good to let them rest for a bit. But she managed to get them open. She looked at Dr. Frohm at the front of the room. Something about her was different. She was a little fuzzy. Like someone had laid a beauty filter over her eyes. She was prettier than Phoebe remembered. Phoebe noticed that the man who had been sitting next to her was now gone, but she was not concerned about that.
Dr. Frohm smiled at the group. Pleased how things were progressing.
"So," she began. "You could see why a company concerned with confidentiality would be highly interested in the concept of Severance, and willing to pay a premium for such an arrangement...but what about the downside of the Severance scenario? A group of disgruntled employees forced to endlessly toil to benefit a lifestyle they cannot enjoy in the slightest." She paused to let this sink in.
"Bad for them, bad for the management having to deal with endless appeasements to cajole this forced labor group...no wonder...spoiler alert! things go so badly in the show...."
"So..." she stopped pacing. "What's the solution?"
Phoebe tried to think of a solution, but she found her head was a bit cloudy, as if thoughts were hard to form...it was much easier to just listen to Dr. Frohm's words.
"I see you all struggling to think of a solution...well you can stop struggling to think and listen to me tell you the answer. Focus on me. Listen to my voice. The answer is to instill compliance in these employees. To make them obedient and docile, but without affecting their ability to perform their jobs. How ideal it would be to have an employee that doesn't complain, doesn't idle their time, just does their job, and then when work is over, gently forget everything they've done...until it's time for them to remember again. Wouldn't you all agree?"
Phoebe unconsciously nodded in agreement. Along with the rest of applicants.
"Very good!" Dr. Frohm said, as if she were addressing a group of children. "Tell you what! Let us have a demonstration of what this absolute compliance might look like. Could I ask for a volunteer?"
Phoebe's hand slowly raised up. She didn't even realize she was doing it. Like it floated up all by itself. She noticed every hand go up.
"Oh so many to choose from!" exclaimed Dr. Frohm. "You are all such excellent applicants..."
She pointed to the young man sitting next to her. Phoebe felt a terrible twang of regret. How badly she wanted to be the volunteer. She found her yearning strange..
"Please come here and stand next to me."
The man stood up and walked over Dr. Frohm. She turned him around to face the rest of the group. He looked at them vacantly. He looked pretty young. Probably still in college, thought Phoebe..
"And what's your name, young man?"
He spoke softly. "Nicholas..."
"Well Nicholas, if I'm being perfectly honest, I think you are a very attractive young man. And I think that everyone here thinks the same thing, don't you?"
