In Severance, Candance relies on her job because of the financial security and routine it provides. Yet, she also dislikes how restrictive it is and resents that it impedes on her passions. The "fevered," a major symbol in the novel, are people infected by routine. They endlessly repeat the same routines, with mild variations, and represent the danger of being consumed by tediousness.
"For the most part, from what we had seen, the fevered were creatures of habit, mimicking old routines and gestures they must have inhabited for years, decades. The lizard brain is a powerful thing" (ebook 20).