My “innie” at work would not approve of Lumon Industries; my “outie”, though, is obsessed with it.
If you still think your “Innie” is referring to your belly button, then you likely aren’t watching one of the biggest television shows of this year — Severance (which can be found on Apple TV+).
(Here’s where I say: very mild spoilers ahead.)
The show’s premise is based on a sci-fi notion that a company (Lumon Industries) has created a technology where a person has two different sides of them — their work self (“Innie”) that only exists at the office and their outside of work self (“outie”) that only exists everywhere else, with each side having no memory of what the other side knows or does.
The season two finale of the show is coming up later this week, so because this shows deals so much in the work space, I thought it would be fun to talk about a few employment law aspects of the show. After all, while you can take the employment lawyer out of work — my outie still knows way too much of employment law to just ignore it.
On a recent episode, one of the “innies” tries to resign for various reasons. The employee is required to fill out a form; the show has even posted the sample resignation form on the “company’s” LinkedIn page.
The funniest/strangest part is the section where the “outie” has to approve of the innie’s request.
It should go without saying that this is many shades illegal because, well, we don’t have (or shouldn’t have) forced labor still in the United States. Employment-at-will is a notion that I’ve talked about many times before; but in the Severance world (with the home office in the fictional town of Kier), the outies control. Horrible way to run a business but let’s face it — it’s perfect for this show.
Also, there are no magic forms that an employee needs to use to resign. And while employers request that employees provide two weeks’ notice, there’s no law that requires that.
In another episode, two of the “innies” have a romantic relationship. But here’s where we can cut Severance some slack. Romantic relationships aren’t per se illegal; indeed, our society is filled with many instances of people who find their true love at work.
But.
When I’m doing sexual harassment prevention training, I often caution people that relationships are not the best idea — and should be actively discouraged between a supervisor and a direct report because if things turn bad, it could lead to a sexual harassment claim. So, here’s hoping the “innies” find their true love.
And lastly, there’s the performance review that one of the Lumon Industries’ managers (enforcers?) gives to a supervisor on a recent episode. Among the criticisms? The supervisor uses too many “big words” and, even worse, uses paper clips incorrectly.
Is this illegal? Likely not unless a protected group (say, women) were the only ones singled out for these types of criticism.
But, again, not a great look for management. Performance reviews ought to be based on what’s required of the job and reflect the entirety of a year. If using “big words” makes the employee less effective, then I suppose it could be valid criticism but it’s likely to be seen by the employee as nit-picking and unfair.
Performance reviews work best when they focus on objective criteria that have been agreed upon at the start of a year. That’s a lofty goal to be sure but at the very least, employers should probably worry less about “correct” usage of paper clips.
Lastly, enjoy this video of the “Lumon Management Program”. I’m sure both my innie and outie would approve.