My \[24M\] live in girlfriend \[25F\] hates her job in advertising. She often comes home and starts crying because of how abusive they are to her. I've met her boss and he is honestly kind of twisted. He knows that she will get deported if he fires her, so he dangles that her job over her head because he knows it will make her work overtime. He underpays her and tells his whole office that anyone who discusses salary will be fired. One glance at glassdoor and it's obvious she's underpaid for her role.

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She is a very talented individual who went to a top 3 school in China, and then got her masters in states at a prestigious program in the US. She works super hard and all her coworkers that I've met tell me she's a superstar.She has been promoted multiple times but without a substantial salary increase. 

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I know she can get a better job at a better company that treats her well if she tries, and she **talks** about applying for a new job all the time. But inertia is incredibly powerful, especially if you're already exhausted from working from 8am - 11pm every day. We've had a lot of discussions where I try to talk her into actually setting aside some time to network and apply at other places, but she never gets around to it. For context it has been **1.5 years** since she started complaining about her job and she hadn't even applied to other places. In fact we talked about it briefly on our first date.

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Her boss is intelligent &amp; manipulative. He will occasionally throw her a bone, like give her a tiny raise, or compliment her work, that makes her feel like "maybe things will get better" - but they don't, and she's always in tears about it a few days later. She also has some sort of internal confidence issue, combined with inertia, combined with not having the energy / motivation to do it.

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I didn't know what to do - it's not like I can apply for her. But it was breaking my heart to see her like this. So one day I asked her to cover her eyes because I had a surprise for her. I led her into the bedroom where I had put her laptop and then shut the door behind her, and held it shut. I told her through the doors that I would not be letting her out until she showed me a few submitted applications. I even left some water and food in the room.

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She whined a bit at first and asked me to let her out but I refused. It felt cruel but necessary to finally give her a push. Honestly I have done a lot of talking with her, and I feel talking is just that - talk. She eventually caved and started editing her resume and writing the cover letter. After 2.5 hours she had sent a few applications out and I let her out, and we hugged it out.

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When I told a friend about it, he was aghast and said it was an abusive thing to do. I have mixed feelings myself. It seems fucked up but it was the last thing I could think of and it worked. So I'm wondering: AITA?