There is a reason so many of us are hooked on the Apple TV+ science fiction show Severance, and it has to do with how uplifted we feel by the relationships formed between the central characters, offering one another hope, strength, and support from bonds of trust while working at the fictional Lumon Industries. The team’s strong interpersonal relationships provide psychological safety and Coping strategies in a heavily monitored and constrained workplace that is swimming in secrecy, and whose managers severely limit the freedom of their employees.

In Severance, we follow a group of workers who have agreed to undergo a surgical procedure known as “severance” that involves inserting a chip into their brains to create two distinct identities—an “innie” and “outie.” It is, in a sense, intentional creation of a dissociative disorder. The DSM-5 defines dissociation as “a disruption of a person’s normal sense of identity, memory, and consciousness.” Dissociative disorders often develop after traumatic events such as wars, natural disasters, or experiences of abuse.

The first season of Severance Season depicts the “innie” as the personality and memories that exist only within the Lumon workplace. Innies have no memories or knowledge of their “outie” selves. In the final episode of the season, however, these innies engage in a high-risk escape from Lumon to the outer world for a first-time glimpse at their outie selve’s lives. They are buoyed by their trust in one another and we delight in their collective strength and courage.

In that final episode, we discover that Helly, who hates Lumon as her innie, and who even attempted suicide because she was so miserable at Lumon, is in fact the daughter of the Lumon CEO and that she had voluntarily been severed to become an innie. She enters a Lumon gala as her innie and attempts to expose the severence practice and Lumon for how she perceives it: as a tortuous, controlling, miserable workplace. We learn that her outie fully supports severance, and so is the cause of her innie’s suffering.

In the first episode of the second season, we rejoice in watching Helly reunite with her colleagues—until we become uneasy as we hear Helly recount her story of escape as they all share their stories of what it was like to see their outie life for the first time as an innie. She betrays her colleagues’ trust with a lie and omits that she discovered that she is the daughter of Lumon’s CEO. In another scene, their supervisor, Milchick, promises another member of the team, Dylan, that he will have be allowed special visits with his outie family, but only if he keeps this secret from his trusted co-workers. Betrayal and the looming potential for trust-related harm have arrived in the innie world.

Betrayal in the Workplace

Betrayal in workplaces is common: Someone takes credit for someone else’s work or undermines someone’s ideas, a boss sets unrealistic performance goals, or someone reports sexual harassment and is gaslit or retaliated against after attempting to right the wrong and for trusting the organization to do something about it. Or a seasoned employee is walked out by security as though they have betrayed the organization when all they have done is become older, wiser, and costlier to the payroll.

We are wired to trust those we depend on for our survival and livelihood. Paychecks and health insurance are powerful motivators to not notice, and even desire to forget, when our workplaces betray us. Discovery of painful truths like workplace betrayal can represent a profound threat to our well-being and a cause of great suffering. Our minds tend to rid us of the burden of betrayal at work, so we can keep going on to collect that paycheck and survive (Freyd, 2013).

Insights from the Research on Betrayal

One of the most overlooked contributors to a decline in workplace wellness is trust-based harm. Employees subjected to betrayal at work, either by experiencing it or witnessing it, may experience heightened stress, anxiety, and emotional exhaustion, and are more likely to consider quitting. The effects of betrayal often include self-doubt, diminished self-worth, and a feeling of being mentally contaminated. Or we may dissociate, which can take the form of being “lost” in a moment to a complete absence of memory or not feeling connected to one’s own body or surroundings. We are most vulnerable to this cycle when we don’t perceive that we have the power to act in ways that name the betrayal for what it is: wrong and destructive. This is not exactly a productive state for creative problem-solving and attention to detail at work.

According to researchers, it is not just those who are betrayed who are negatively impacted, but also those who hold organizational secrets. Helly and Dylan are at high risk of becoming mentally and emotionally unwell as a result of the social isolation they may encounter, even if their colleagues do not discover their secrets, as feelings of isolation can stem from being unable to talk about an organizational secret and can lead to feeling lonely and experiencing reduced meaning at work.

When we betray, we express indifference toward others. We unapologetically display how little we care about the damage we do. If we have a moral code, this messes with us.

Blinded by the Need to Survive

Severance never mentions compensation or the cost of living. Maybe that’s the point in this fictional sci-fi world: to attempt to lead the severed employees to such a high frequency of the occurrence of dissociation, without support for processing the associated emotions, that they become blind to betrayal because of dependence on their workplace to survive. Their dissociation is the point and self-betrayal is the consequence. Can Self-compassion and self-care be accessed under these conditions? Maybe we’ll find out in the second season.

We can learn from the fictional Lumon Industries and recognize the opportunities in the courageous, compassionate acts of confronting betrayal at work. Where betrayal exists in the workplace, workers and organizations are likely paying a high price in worker wellness, health, and the bottom line. Healthy workplaces create compassionate cultures that fuel growth and thriving born of psychological safety and trust.

If you have been betrayed by your workplace, you may not be able to quit, but you can learn to become aware of your potential for betrayal blindness. You can heal through the creation of safe relationships. While your instinct to survive may facilitate turning a blind eye to betrayal, your instincts for Self-compassion are just as likely to ignite anger to prompt you to think, plan, and take compassionate, courageous action to make a change. Try to find the courage to open your eyes to betrayal. It’s painful and unpleasant to accept that it’s happening, but it’s good for you to plan to put safeguards in place and confront betrayal to protect your well-being.