When a woman recently posted about leaving her high-paying corporate job, she did not expect the internet to lose its mind over it. She described the job, the salary, the designation, the security - as a "golden cage." Beautiful from the outside. Suffocating from the inside. She said she was happier now, earning less, doing work that felt like hers.
The post went viral. Not because it was shocking. But because somewhere between the comments and the shares, millions of working Indians quietly typed two words they had never said out loud: Same here.
Picture this. You have a job your parents brag about at family dinners. Your LinkedIn says a respectable company name. The salary hits your account every month without fail. You have health insurance, a team, a title.
And every Sunday evening, your stomach drops.
Not dramatically. No big breakdown. Just a quiet, creeping dread that tomorrow is Monday again.
This is the reality of what psychologists call the golden handcuffs, a job that pays you too well to leave, even when it is quietly taking something from you every single day.
A 2025 Happiness Research Report that surveyed over 2,000 Indian professionals found that people earning above ₹20 lakh a year showed the lowest happiness scores at work, lower than those earning a fraction of that. The top reasons? Burnout, constant pressure, and emotional isolation.
More money. Less happy. And somehow, no one can say anything about it because, well, look at the salary.
Let us be honest about something. In India, a stable, well-paying job is not just income. It is identity. It is proof. It is the answer to every question your relatives have ever asked.
When a girl from a middle-class family cracks a corporate job with a fat package, the whole family exhales. Years of coaching classes, entrance exams, parental sacrifice, all of it justified. The job is not just a job. It is a symbol.
So when someone walks away from that? It is not just a career decision. It feels like a betrayal. Of the family. Of the effort. Of the plan.
This is exactly why so many people stay.
Not because they love the work. But because leaving feels like too much to explain.
Most people do not wake up one day and realise they are burned out. It happens slowly, the way a phone battery drains, not all at once, but hour by hour, until suddenly it is at 4% and you have no idea when it happened.
You walk in, switch on a version of yourself that is professional, pleasant, agreeable. You say the right things in meetings. You meet deadlines. You look fine.
But the person you are at work and the person you are at 11 pm staring at the ceiling? They do not feel like the same human being.
The Sunday evening dread used to show up occasionally. Now it arrives every week without fail, somewhere around 5 pm, like an uninvited guest who has figured out your schedule.
You scroll. You overthink tomorrow's calendar. You feel vaguely guilty for not "enjoying your weekend more." This is not normal tiredness. This is your body signaling something your brain is refusing to accept.
Early on, you had ideas. You thought about growth, projects you wanted to take on, things you wanted to build. Somewhere along the way, that stopped.
Now you just think about getting through the week.
Psychologists note that when someone loses the ability to imagine a positive future within their current role, it is a strong signal of what the WHO formally classifies as occupational burnout, chronic workplace stress that has simply not been managed.
Here is the uncomfortable truth: most people who are unhappy at work know they are unhappy. They are not in denial. They are in calculation.
The calculation goes something like this:
If I leave, I lose the salary. If I lose the salary, I lose the EMI safety net. If I lose that, I lose the flat. And then what do I tell everyone?
This is the golden handcuffs trap and it is as much a psychological trap as a financial one. Research in career psychology shows that leaving a high-paying job is not primarily a money decision. It is an identity decision. The role you hold for years begins to fuse with who you think you are. Stepping away then feels less like switching jobs and more like losing yourself.
It is comfortable and even luxurious but it is still a cage.
A survey by Great Place To Work found that among burned-out employees, the top phrase they used to describe what kept them at their workplace was, ironically: golden handcuffs. Not passion. Not growth. Not belonging. The money. Just the money.
This isn’t just about work, it’s about what slowly builds up over time.
It begins quietly. Sleep feels lighter, mornings feel heavier. Small things start to irritate more than they should. Even after a break, the tiredness doesn’t fully go away. The body carries the stress even when the day ends.
Even outside work, the mind doesn’t fully relax. Thoughts keep looping, unfinished tasks, upcoming deadlines, things that might go wrong. Rest stops feeling like real rest.
Things that once felt enjoyable stop feeling the same. Hobbies fade, conversations feel forced, and days start blending into each other. Life starts to feel like routine without much meaning.
Even small choices begin to feel draining, what to eat, where to go, whether to meet someone. After spending all day dealing with pressure, the mind starts avoiding decisions altogether.
It’s not always sadness. Sometimes it’s the absence of feeling anything strongly. Good news doesn’t feel very exciting, and bad days don’t feel surprising either. Everything feels flat.
There’s a constant second-guessing, whether things are being done well enough, whether this is the right path, whether it’s too late to change anything. Confidence slowly takes a hit.
Nothing is said out loud. Work continues, responsibilities are met, and everything looks fine from the outside. But inside, it feels different, and harder to explain.
Over time, it’s not just the job that feels heavy, it’s the way it starts shaping how everything feels.
Here is where this article has to be honest, because the viral post tells one version of the story.
The woman who quit and said she is happier? She is telling the truth. Her truth.
But for every person who quit a corporate job and found freedom, there are others who quit and found a different kind of stress, the instability of unpredictable income, the isolation of working alone, the anxiety of no safety net.
Quitting is not a cure. Sometimes the problem is the specific company, the manager, the role, not the concept of work itself.
The real question is not should I quit? The real question is: what am I actually running from, and what am I running toward?
Is it this job that is draining me, or would any job feel this way right now?
If money were not a factor at all, what would I change first?
Have I told anyone, a manager, an HR, a trusted colleague, what I am experiencing?
Is there a version of this job I could tolerate while I build toward something else?
These are not questions with easy answers. But they are better than either suffering in silence or making a decision from pure exhaustion.
Feeling suicidal or in crisis? Contact a helpline or emergency service immediately.
1. Vandrevala Foundation Helpline:
+91 9999666555 (24x7)
2. Sanjivini (Delhi-based):
011-40769002 (10 am - 5:30 pm)
3. Sneha Foundation (Chennai-based):
044-24640050 (8 am - 10 pm)
4. National Mental Health Helpline: 1800-599-0019
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