The TV show “Retirement” looks at the nature of the workplace. There are healthier ways to separate home and office life

Released in weekly installments, the highly anticipated season 2 of retirement continues to attract attention among viewers around the world.

An attractive psychological thriller, this TV series offers extreme illustrations of the compartmentalization of work and personal life.

In the show, “transmitted” workers agree to a surgical procedure in which the device is embedded in the brain and divides memory and experience into two parts.

Once disconnected, “innies” go to work without knowledge of their “outies” lives or family. And “Outies” doesn’t recall the activities they did or the relationships they developed while “damn” was at work.

Returning to the real world, the hybrid work revolution has led to earthquake changes in work habits. For some, it makes it difficult to mark the end of work and where the house begins. However, there are still healthy ways to separate our personal and professional lives.

Earthquake changes in work habits

The first season of Severance in 2022 premiered in the wake of the global pandemic, when lockdown forced most workers to work from home for long periods of time.

Now, three years later, many employees are still working in hybrid mode.

Data for 2024 shows that more than a third of Australians still work from home regularly. This arrangement is particularly common among knowledge workers. Knowledge-based workers are generally office workers, and their roles can be performed remotely.

At the same time, there is an increase in total remote work, with some workers exploring the digital nomadic lifestyle that allows them to live anywhere in the world while working remotely.

Hybrid working models are clearly future-friendly business models from a worker’s perspective, but some employers are retreating.

However, hybrid work creates an ongoing challenge for workers who want to create psychological boundaries between work and the home domain.

Create a boundary between work and home

People spend a lot of time building and managing psychological boundaries between their work and other personal lives, such as spending time with their families, engaging in the community, and self-care practices.

Examples of these boundaries can include out-of-office replies. This involves notifying others working hours on the set, turning your laptop into work on the weekends, or removing the work email app from your personal phone.

As humans, we long for boundaries that will focus our attention and allow us to exist more in each of our lives.

Resignation provides a critical view of how far workers go to achieve a separation between work and life. Take the character mark S. Mark S. escaped the grief of losing his wife and underwent retirement procedures to block a part of his personal life from his working life. Or at least, it’s something that has led us to believe.

Like the confrontational and somewhat troubling style of Black Mirror in the TV series, retirement by presenting futuristic and innovative ways to reduce the tension experienced when psychological boundaries are not managed. Challenge the audience.

Can I disconnect my identity across domains?

It is desirable to create wise boundaries across your life domain. But retirement helps us to look into how we can’t completely block our home. Towards the end of season one, the show’s “Innies” continues to try to keep in touch with their “Outies” to find someone who really works outside.

Certainly, personality studies allow us to assume somewhat different personas in different areas of life, while our people need for consistency creates lasting patterns of self-concept and behavior. indicates.

Consistency is necessary to maintain self-integrity, providing the foundation for us to effectively adapt to various social environments and foster positive happiness.

Research also shows that workers experience a sense of self-realization and higher job satisfaction and burnout when they feel they can bring their real selves to work. Without these protective elements it is no wonder Helly R tried to escape from the repeatedly cut floor.

Achieving meaning at work

What’s also impressive about the work life of people on the cut floor is how meaningless their work seems. Throughout season 1 and season 2, we never really understand the nature and purpose of their work at Mysterious Corporation Lumon Industries.

We know that meaningless or “bulldy” work is linked to poor mental health, in the words of American anthropologist David Graver. Adverse working conditions such as poor management and toxic cultures can exacerbate this problem and render meaningful work meaningless.

In this sense, if we can’t cut “innies” and “outies” as shown in retirement, negative work experiences will spill over our family life and cause a downward spiral.

Restoring the meaning and purpose of our work will not only improve our work experience, but also boost our self-esteem and enrich our personal lives. This can be done by improving work design, leadership and organizational culture.

As season 2 continues, retirement continues to raise sticky ethical questions to reflect on the role of work in our lives. The answer may not be close, but the mystical twist is almost guaranteed.

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