In Chennai, the concept of a linear career is quietly being rewritten. What was once viewed as a risky interruption is increasingly emerging as a deliberate pause, shaped by burnout, caregiving responsibilities, higher education, entrepreneurial ambition, or the need to recalibrate personal priorities. Yet beneath the surface of LinkedIn announcements and returnship programmes lies a more layered story about self-doubt, financial anxiety, and evolving workplace norms.
In 2019, an internship opportunity at a radio organisation knocked on the door of Asha Inbaraj, who had been working in the corporate sector for six years. “There was no stipend for the internship. On the other side, I was earning half a lakh per month. The feeling that I should not regret not taking up the opportunity to do what I love felt stronger than continuing in a monotonous desk job. Also, I knew that there were a lot of IT jobs available for my experience. So, I decided to take up the opportunity to work in the media,” Asha says.
With her Provident Fund amount as backup, she did spend it lavishly until it vanished. After that, she tweaked her lifestyle, shifting from cabs to buses and from online food orders to roadside food stalls. After a year of trying her hand in the media, she returned to the corporate world. “All of my friends were earning high salaries. I had to start from where I stopped. But I was aware that it was the cost that I had to bear for doing the things that I love,” she adds, saying that updating skills is the key to grabbing endless opportunities in the corporate sector.
Asha finds people management and emotional intelligence lacking in corporate spaces. “Many managers treat people with career breaks as failures. This needs to be changed.”
For many professionals today especially in high-pressure, performance-driven environments a career break is not an escape from responsibility, but a deliberate choice to reclaim clarity, health, and purpose. After completing her undergraduate degree, Sangeetha P worked as an assistant manager in an edtech company for a couple of years. “On paper, the trajectory looked stable and promising. In reality, it was accompanied by growing mental exhaustion and medical concerns that gradually eroded my sense of balance,” she shares.
Medical advice further reinforced what she had begun to accept internally: pushing forward without pause was no longer sustainable.
Like any other professional who is in a dilemma about taking a career gap because of financial uncertainty, Sangeetha also faced the same. However, she planned things with great caution. “I saved aggressively and set tentative timelines for my return. I learned to distinguish between needs and habits.”
During the break, she turned to craftwork and creative activities to cope, heal, and divert herself from uncertainty. What initially felt like a distraction gradually became therapeutic. “When I eventually decided to restart my career, it did not diminish my confidence. I returned with clarity about my strengths, boundaries, and expectations,” the 25-year-old adds. Now, she is navigating her career towards the field of finance.
When we spoke to the founder of Elysian Inspires and career clarity coach Prabha Rajan about the normalisation of taking career breaks, she affirms that it has not become very common, but people are not feeling guilty now. “The awareness to take a pause, get direction, and restart has become quite high. Beginners realise that they do not belong in their current job and want to rethink career options. They dare to take the risk instead of being trapped. People at the mid-level take a break because of burnout, health issues, feeling stagnant, comparisons, the emotional cost of constantly performing without purpose, and lack of recognition. Among these, health issues top the list. At the senior level, employees feel stagnated. They find it difficult to cope with the changing technology and work culture, leading to drastic stress levels. They are ready to forgo good earnings and choose a gap,” she explains.
Prabha believes that a career break is not a stigma anymore. “Hiring managers do understand, provided you justify the gap period. It is crucial to upgrade your skills, and constant learning is important. Yes, taking care of mental health is crucial. But that doesn’t mean wasting time idly. This is the time to self-introspect and realign goals,” she states. Most importantly, candidates must be truthful about taking a career gap and justify the same to employers, instead of hiding the facts.
According to Dr Sunil Kumar, a clinical psychologist, a decade ago, career breaks were usually linked to life transitions like parenting or relocation. Today, they are increasingly acts of psychological survival. “Burnout is not sudden but cumulative. It begins with overcommitment and perfectionism, progresses to emotional exhaustion and irritability, and eventually leads to detachment, cynicism, and cognitive fatigue,” he says.
Talking about the emotional challenges individuals face during a career break, Dr Sunil explains, “Stepping away from work can trigger intense guilt and shame. Many individuals struggle with social comparison and fear of irrelevance. A career break often forces people to confront a deeper question: Who am I if I am not constantly achieving? That identity crisis can be both painful and transformative.”
When it comes to the kind of support systems personal or organisational that most effectively help individuals reintegrate into work after a break, he leans towards humane organisational practices. “This includes flexible re-entry policies, manageable workloads, and psychological safety. Career breaks should be viewed as signals that our work cultures need reform.”
This normalisation, however, is neither uniform nor complete. Employers speak of productivity over presence; professionals speak of sustainability over speed. Yet acceptance often hinges on context the duration of the break, the sector involved, and how convincingly the narrative is articulated during hiring.
“Career breaks, especially those taken for mental health, are still stigmatised. Hiring processes frequently equate gaps with risk rather than resilience. There are limited structured pathways for professionals returning after breaks, such as reintegration programmes, flexible onboarding, or mentorship support,” says Sangeetha.
Asha finds people management and emotional intelligence lacking in corporate spaces. “Many managers treat people with career breaks as failures. This needs to be changed.”
However, Prabha feels that the work culture in Chennai has been evolving since the Covid 19 pandemic. “The uncertainty of layoffs and the responsibility to support families are widely understood by employers now. However, it is not completely free of stigma. The haunting questions indirectly point towards whether you will be able to handle pressure again and test your confidence level. The biggest comeback will be to answer these questions by being unapologetic. Employers like clarity over guilt,” she adds.
A career gap is gradually shifting from being a red flag to a footnote, one that requires explanation, but not apology. Chennai’s workforce is thus navigating a subtle cultural transition, redefining ambition not as constant motion, but as the freedom to pause and return.
Hiring managers do understand, provided you justify the gap period. It is crucial to upgrade your skills, and constant learning is important. Taking care of mental health is crucial. But that doesn’t mean wasting time idly. This is the time to self-introspect and realign goals Prabha Rajan, career clarity coach