Unraveling the ideological illusions of work–life balance

This paper explores the popular concept of “work–life balance” in contemporary neoliberal society through the lens of the television series Severance (2022–). In the series, a mega-corporation named Lumon Industries implements the “severance” procedure to separate employees’ memories between their work and personal lives, claiming to implement a perfect balance between them. By creating two different personalities that inhabit the same body on a rotating time clock, the procedure exacerbates the alienation that is already inherent to the capitalist mode of production, per Marx. I argue that Severance challenges the ideological illusion of work–life balance through this exaggerated portrayal of our real conditions of alienation.