What do we look for in work? Reflections and questions sparkled by two TV series

What do we want from our lives? When we wake up in the morning to go to work, what are we looking for? What do we want? Coming out of a pandemic we weren't prepared for, we found ourselves grappling with more pressing questions, questioning the status quo of our lives. Forced or tempted to rewind the tape of our decisions to understand where we were going and if the path taken was the right one. And by path we mean both life and work. "Smart" work, Great resignation and "quiet quitting" are all phenomena almost completely unknown until recently, but with which we have learned to become familiar and, in some cases, to take into consideration as a final option in connection with the final choice of our self-analysis path. 

To put it in numbers, between 2021 and 2022, the phenomenon of Great Resignation led to the record number of 4.6 million Americans choosing to quit their jobs voluntarily. That is only in the United States. This might be the reason why while working life becomes increasingly complex and less obvious, TV series shows a steady increase in stories that analyze the office as work environment, or rather, to put it more generally, the workspaces and the internal dynamics of the latter, where every day we go for the desire for personal fulfillment, growth, self-discovery.

Think about "The Bear" and the extraordinary success of the first two seasons. The series created by Christopher Storer had, and still has - a third season has already been announced - the unique quality of being able to show the human side and the fragility of those who live in the world of work. In particular, with reference to the frantic and almost chaotic rhythms of a kitchen. The Bear is a magnificent family story, which investigates the food culture but also the stress caused by the work routine of those who spend their days in the kitchen. A workplace TV show, like the many others that have been created in past few years in the wake of new questions being raised and based on a reassessment of our priorities. 

One episode in particular caught our attention, because it shows the evolution of the characters of the series, in depth and using irony as they change and learn to know each other by getting involved, letting themselves be helped and corrected, in the relationship with colleagues and "staff mates". In Season 2, episode number 7, "Forks", a season that pays high attention to the change of the individual characters in view of a greater collective change, cousin Richie, played by Ebon Moss-Bachrach, is a sloppy but fascinating character: he is Mikey's best friend, the late brother of the protagonist Carmy, and Eva's father, and lives with anguish his divorce, the inability to have a dialogue with his teenage daughter, and is disoriented and frustrated by his role at The Beef, Carmy's restaurant. Richie is a handyman, not a chef, an entrepreneur or a waiter and, after so many years, he cynically keeps on searching for his "place in the world".

Richie experiences his own turning point when he is sent by Carmy to do a week-long internship at a starred restaurant. This is the place where the cousin known until then as dismissive and lazy experiences a true transformation. After starting polishing indifferently some forks (hence the title of the episode), thanks to listening and patience, and above all in the relationship with his temporary manager, a passionate waiter, he grows during the internship, as does the relationship he sparked up with his daughter Eva. In rediscovering a new self, with a purpose and with qualities recognized by those he is working for, Richie changes, rediscovering a new possibility of life. The growth of the character leads him to look at reality with new eyes, investing everything he has rediscovered in Carmy's new business. “Learn to be part of a team. Surround yourself with good people. Learn to listen", because "every second counts". The episode ends with Richie who, due to some ups and downs, takes the lead of the kitchen staff during the opening night of the renovated family restaurant, a moment on which the future of the entire business depends.

The episode "Forks" sums up well what Vittorio Tadei had in mind when he wrote the "Dream": “Teddy Dream is to build up a company where, thanks to their job, young people and even less young are able to give a meaning to their own life”. The work experience, for us at Teddy, is a privileged opportunity to discover more about yourself, your talents, your vocation. Just like Richie did, polishing forks and watching his colleagues loving what they were doing.

Another engaging and provocative story is the one shown in the TV show "Severance", a series halfway between thriller and science fiction, which tells the story of life in the offices of Lumon, a mysterious company whose purpose is not clear even to the employees themselves. The TV series, directed by Ben Stiller, analyzes the dissonance that is often experienced in the relationship between the world of work and private life, a dissonance underlying some phenomena such as the Great Resignation. In this manifesto of the absurd you can see all the difficulty of bringing work home with you, but above all the difficulty of bringing one's life, full and dynamic, to the workplace, hindering productivity.

In "Severance", thanks to a small intervention, it is possible to clearly separate the working and private lives of the protagonists, with only the "operational" ability of the characters left.
The provocation of Severance is to create a world where it is possible to split life in and out of work. It is science fiction, in fact, because each of us is one and united: you cannot become another person when you are at home or at work. Or rather, you might do it, but the results can be alienating. You must live and act where you are, be it at home, at work as well as anywhere else, and cannot compartmentalize life.

The first words you hear when watching this series are "Who are you?". The theme of the identity of work and purpose are explored in depth, showing how the world of work is experiencing a very complex phase. Building something through hard work is seen as part of a completely fulfilling life and not just the step before seeking relief in a beer drunk after work. In "Severance" employees gather to form a community, your colleagues become your friends, your travel companions.

Work will never be, perhaps, just pleasure without effort, but it is possible to imagine a version rich in humanity, where the sense of belonging and family are more concrete concepts than simple image-whitewashing slogans. This approach to work, human and rich in meaning, is what we wish Teddy experience to be, for colleagues and collaborators, which we carry on pursuing Vittorio's Dream and making it our own, and which we love to see, even if only in a few frames, in the scenes rich in sensitivity of a series like "The Bear", or in the relationship among colleagues in "Severance".