> quitting is a last-ditch effort at self-preservation.
Can you imagine a red cross nurse suffering from burn out? She may work for food and her life may be hard by most standards, but what she does is in harmony with her true self, and this gives her energy and inner peace. A highly paid corporate worker, on the other hand, may do something that's against his principles, something that doesn't harmonize with his true self, and he has to forcefully take bits of energy from his soul and sell it. This is what drains him and leads to burnout.
While not usually applied to everyday white collar workers, you seem to be hinting at what is called "moral injury"
Typically associated with the military and with healthcare professionals who go into their fields with good intentions, but then have to sacrifice on those for various (typically capitalistic or even arbitrary) reasons.
My view on this is more metaphysical. We have that inner self in us, that is the source of all life, meaning and happiness, and there's our persona in which our inner self is only dimly manifested. The right cause makes our inner self manifest a bit more fully and that feels like an uplifting influx of energy in our persona. On the other hand, when our persona does something wrong or meaningless, it stops receiving that energy as our inner self withdraws attention awaiting better opportunities to invest itself.
Can you imagine a red cross nurse suffering from burn out? She may work for food and her life may be hard by most standards, but what she does is in harmony with her true self, and this gives her energy and inner peace. A highly paid corporate worker, on the other hand, may do something that's against his principles, something that doesn't harmonize with his true self, and he has to forcefully take bits of energy from his soul and sell it. This is what drains him and leads to burnout.