https://www.newyorker.com/culture/on-television/how-severance-makes-a-fetish-of-the-office

“Whatever the intention of its creators—and most reviews characterized the show at least partially as a workplace satire—what played out on our screens was less a critique of the office than a fetishization.” It is likely that the show grew so popular because the office wasn't really being framed as a hardship at all.