'₹2,600 hike, ₹3,000 therapy': Why this Bengaluru employee quit without another job

A Bengaluru man has gone viral after announcing that he quit his corporate job without another offer in hand, saying a growing workload, limited career growth and a 6% annual salary hike had left him exhausted and struggling with his mental health.

In a video shared by Humans of Bombay, Pramod Paul said he had decided to resign despite having "no job offers in hand, no backup plans, nothing."

Paul said the demands of his role had increased over the years, but his pay and designation had not. "After working day in and day out, the line between day and night was blurred. At this point, I've been given the work of a senior analyst, the position of an analyst, and the salary of an intern," he said.

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He added that receiving a 6% increment, which translated to an effective ₹2,600 increase in his monthly salary, made him question whether the pressure was worth it. "So much anxiety, depression, all for what? 6% hike? 6%! Effective ₹2,600 per month," he said.

Watch the viral post here:

Therapy cost more than his annual hike

Paul said the stress eventually drove him to seek professional help. He said he paid ₹2,000 for a psychiatrist consultation and was then referred to stress management therapy costing ₹3,000 per session. "If the therapy session cost is more than your annual hike, then you're definitely cooked," he said.

From family debt to corporate pressure

According to Humans of Bombay, Paul grew up in Kolar, near Bengaluru, in a family burdened by debt. He said his father was a pastor and his mother a homemaker, and that both had taken heavy loans to educate him and his brother.

After graduation, Paul said he started working as a wealth manager and also took an ₹8 lakh loan to help clear his family's debts. He later joined a major financial firm, where he worked for nearly four years.

However, Paul said things changed after a corporate acquisition. "For nearly four years, I gave it everything. But after a corporate acquisition, management changed, the greed grew, and the promotions dried up," he said.

He added that while his workload kept increasing, his salary did not. "I watched local tea vendors make ₹2 lakhs a month while I was stuck with a salary that was basically peanuts," he said.

Turning to content creation

Paul said he eventually turned to content creation, making videos about corporate life and everyday struggles, often featuring his mother. He said the videos gained traction and helped him stay afloat financially and mentally, attracting around 100K followers.

Even then, he said the pressure at work continued to grow. "At one point, I was doing the full workload of a senior analyst, yet during appraisals, I was given a bare ₹2,000 hike. That's when I knew I had to quit," he said.

Paul said his last working day is August 15. While he still has ₹3 lakh of his loan left to repay and no clear plan for what comes next, he said he is willing to embrace uncertainty. "I still have ₹3 lakhs of that loan left to clear. If you ask me what my exact plan is now, I'll be honest: I am completely lost. But until I figure it out, I am choosing the uncertainty of my talent over the certainty of corporate exploitation," he said.