You Can’t Leave Your Emotions at the Door

The TV show Severance (which I highly recommend!) imagines a workplace where employees undergo a procedure that severs their consciousness in two. Work-you remembers nothing about home. Home-you remembers nothing about work. Needless to say, these hard and fast boundaries cannot hold.

At its heart, Severance is a reflection on our culture’s obsession with segmentation—the belief that we can divide ourselves into clean compartments: These emotions are good; those are bad. This part of me belongs at work; that part should stay behind.

Most workplaces no longer say “leave your emotions at home.” But they still signal it by celebrating energy and composure, while sidelining discomfort, doubt, or grief. Over time, these subtle cues shape how people show up. We learn to only perform the versions of ourselves we believe are acceptable.

And while segmentation may begin as self-protection, it often eventually becomes self-suppression. Emotions don’t stay boxed up. They leak—through tension, withdrawal, or sometimes tears over a commercial that unexpectedly hits a little too close to home.

Integration is a more sustainable path.

While segmentation excludes certain parts of ourselves, integration invites the whole self in—contradictions included.

We’re not just one thing or another—serious or lighthearted, strong or sensitive. The most human parts of us often live side by side.

And when we create environments in which people feel welcome to share more of who they truly are, we don’t just support wellbeing, we spark:

• • Creativity
  • Collaboration
  • Innovation
  • Problem-solving
  • Belonging

These are powerful outcomes. They’re the signature of thriving cultures.

In my podcast conversation with Brené Brown, we talked about the Latin root of the word integrate: integrare—to make whole. Even if you show up differently at work and at home, there is still only one you.

To be integrated is to be real. As a character in Severance puts it:

“These are our lives. No one gets to just turn you off.”

It’s a wise insight—one we could all benefit from. Integration doesn’t require a grand gesture. It starts with small, honest moments:

• naming what you feel
• showing up with curiosity
• making room for someone else’s discomfort without rushing to fix it

Wishing you well on your journey,