Look, I love my job. Where else could I write silly little words about the city I love every day and get paid for it? But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t come with its own unique stresses. It’s not all croissants and concerts at Secret London. There are long meetings, tight deadlines, and heavy workloads here, too. But would I choose to be ‘Severed’ to forget it all? No!
Unlike a lot of you, apparently, I’ve been paying close attention to the 2025’s biggest TV show, and it seems like a bad idea. If you haven’t seen Apple TV’s Severance yet (which was renewed for Season 3 last Friday, March 21), the show follows a group of office employees who undergo a procedure to ‘sever’ their work memories from their personal lives. So they have no recollection of their job once they leave.
Sounds ideal? Well, not for the other half of you that’s stuck in an eternal office-based hellscape with no after-work drinks, no bank holiday weekends, and no PTO. Yet, despite Season 2 of the dystopian sci-fi thriller hitting at least 3 billion streaming minutesmore than a third (35%) of UK employees would still choose to be ‘severed’. And it gets worse…
What does the study show about the UK’s work-life balance?
According to the workplace mental health platform, Unmind, this figure rises to 43% among Gen Z workers. The study surveyed 2,000 UK employees about their work-life balance and found that 41% of people struggle to switch offwhile 40% have been contacted by their employer outside of hours, and 44% regularly check emails or messages during their own time.
Okay, we’re starting to see why Severance has resonated with so many peoplewith only 56% of employees satisfied with their work-life balancewhile 29% have considered quitting over it. Furthermore, a third (36%) feel guilty for taking time off, while a similar amount of 33% of employees (47% of Gen Z workers) admit to having pretended to be busy at work. Many (30%) also feel their job has become their identity, and more than a third (38%) describe having a ‘work persona’ that’s different from their real self.
Dr Nick Taylor, CEO and co-founder of Unmind, said: “This research is a stark reminder of the stress and pressure people face today. No one should feel the need to completely forget about their work lives just to cope. Rather than employees feeling they need to disconnect entirely from work to protect their mental health, leaders should build cultures where people feel able to bring their whole selves to work without feeling overwhelmed or burnt out.”
Mental health is a growing concern at work, with one in five (19%) UK workers signed off sick due to mental health issues in the past year – a figure that rises to 34% among 18-24 year-olds and 31% among 25-34 year-olds. Severance probably isn’t the right answer to this problem, but knowing how much inspiration Silicon Valley tech-billionaires already take from sci-fi, it probably will be—‘Don’t Create the Torment Nexus’, as they say.
