we made work competitive

My friend’s daughter, Romia, called me last month.

"I'm making ₹15 lakhs. Three years ago I was making ₹6 lakhs. I should be happy."

Long pause.

"But I checked Glassdoor yesterday. People with my experience are making ₹22 lakhs at other companies. Now I feel cheated."

I asked her: "Did your salary change between Tuesday and Thursday?"

"No."

"Did your rent go up? Did your bills increase?"

"No."

"So, what actually changed?"

"I just... know now. What everyone else is making."

Romia’s salary hadn't changed.
Her life hadn't changed.
But now she knew her ranking, and that was enough to make her miserable. 

It’s interesting because 50% of job postings now include salary information, up from 26% in March 2022.

Delhi saw 208% growth, Mumbai 71%, Bangalore 63%.

We built this system to empower workers, close information gaps, and make hiring fairer.

Instead, we created the world's largest anxiety machine.

India's Gen Z is experiencing 9.5% annual salary increases, the fastest salary growth globally.

Yet 41% remain unhappy with their pay.

In Delhi, 55% are dissatisfied. Mumbai hits 48%.

Are these people struggling to pay rent?
Living paycheck to paycheck?

Most aren't.

They have stable jobs and can cover their expenses.

But they all opened LinkedIn this morning.

When I dug into that study showing 64% of employees aged 21-30 battling high stress, I wanted to understand why.

The top answer for workplace stress wasn't workload or bad managers. It was "not being recognized or rewarded adequately."

Translation: I compared myself to others and came up short.

The stress is from not winning fast enough against everyone else.

And this isn’t new…

In 1954, psychologist Leon Festinger published his Social Comparison Theory.

His research showed that humans instinctively compare themselves to others to evaluate their own abilities and opinions.

We can't help it. It's how we figure out if we're doing okay.

Festinger studied small groups.

Maybe 10 people in a room.

He had no idea what would happen when that theory met Instagram.

The average Indian spends 2 hours 30 minutes daily on social media.

An IIM-Rohtak study of 38,896 youth found males average 6 hours 45 minutes daily, females 7 hours 5 minutes.

491 million Indians are on social media, growing at 5.23% while global usage actually declined. 

150 million Indians are on LinkedIn, with the platform growing 25% year-on-year in India.

Festinger's subjects compared themselves to maybe 10 people.

We compare ourselves to thousands before breakfast.

And we're comparing our full reality against everyone else's highlight reel.

You see "₹25 LPA at Google" in someone's LinkedIn update.

You don't see the 80-hour weeks, the anxiety medication, the years of rejections before that offer landed.

I started tracking this pattern in my own life.

When I was making ₹12 lakhs, I noticed people making ₹18 lakhs.

Got to ₹18 lakhs, started seeing people at ₹25 lakhs.

Reached ₹25 lakhs, noticed founders raising crores.

At every step, someone's above you.

The goalposts move the moment you reach them.

Same thing happens everywhere else.

You're happy with your wedding ceremony until you see your friend's Thailand destination wedding photos.

You love your Honda City until your neighbor parks a BMW.

Every achievement becomes inadequate the moment you see someone else's version of it.

And this is costing a generation. 

69% of Indian Gen Z plan to switch jobs within six months.

In IT, 85% are planning to switch. Professional services hits 77%, BFSI 73%.

They saw better offers online. They're ready to leave.

47% of all Indian professionals are unhappy with pay despite getting regular raises. 30% of Indian employees feel daily stress, and nearly 50% want to switch jobs according to Gallup's 2025 report.

We're experiencing epidemic levels of anxiety from knowing exactly where we rank.

Three months ago, I was checking LinkedIn every morning and feeling inadequate by 9 AM.

Someone my age had started a company. Another had become senior director. My actual life hadn't changed at all, but my ranking in some invisible competition had dropped, so I felt like I was failing.

Then I asked myself Romia’s question in reverse: What if I stopped checking?

I didn't delete the apps.
I changed what I was looking for.

Instead of comparing my net worth to a group of people, I compared it to what I actually needed for the life I wanted. 

Before any comparison now, I ask myself: Do I know the full context here? Am I comparing my behind-the-scenes to their highlight reel? Is this making me better or just making me feel worse?

If it's the last one, I close the app.

I still have goals. I still want to grow.

But I'm measuring progress against my own trajectory, not someone else's Instagram story.

Romia still makes ₹15 lakhs. Her salary hasn't changed.

But she stopped measuring her worth by Glassdoor comparisons and started measuring by whether she's learning, growing, and able to support the life she actually wants.

Last week she told me: "I'm the happiest I've been in months."

Salary transparency was supposed to empower us.

Not give us infinite ways to feel behind.

Going back to information asymmetry isn't the answer.

But recognizing that transparency gave us data, and we're the ones choosing what to do with it is what matters.

You can use salary information to negotiate better. Or you can use it to torture yourself about rankings that don't actually matter.

Festinger was right that we need comparisons to evaluate ourselves.

He just didn't know we'd build machines forcing us to compare ourselves to everyone, everywhere, all the time.

You don't have to stop comparing.

You just have to decide what the comparison means.

Until next week,
Ritesh

P.S. What comparison made you feel inadequate this week? Hit reply. I read every email.