Take This Job and Shove It

Gaining an Edge, Get Better, Professional Development

Take this job and shove it
I ain’t working here no more
My woman done left and took all the reason
I was working for
You better not try to stand in my way
As I’m a-walkin’ out the door
Take this job and shove it
I ain’t working here no more
Take This Job and Shove It – Johnny Paycheck. 1977

When Take This Job and Shove It was released, I was in the 7th grade.  I remember hearing it on the radio and my dad puffing up with pride when he heard it.  Work was different in those days.  People found a career, a company, and rode it out to the bitter end.  Complaining about work was a ritual, but it was the safely of predictability that kept people there.  When Paycheck released this song, it served as wishful thinking to a workforce that didn’t have the courage to utter “take this job and shove it” to their boss.

Things are different today.  Workers have higher expectations of themselves and their careers.  When a job becomes miserable, people simply move on.

And herein lies the problem.  Workers today are telling companies to “take this job and shove it” on a regular basis.  I’m sure if you’re the Boss or an HR professional, you’re affected by this now.  Based on my own research and experience, workers are leaving for three primary reasons:

  1. More money. This is the current challenge.  The pandemic left workers with all the control and power Johnny Paycheck wished for in 1977.  I think this is temporary.  At some point, salaries will normalize, and a recession will put the controls back in the hands of organizations.
  2. A bad boss. Before COVID, this was tied for the number one reason.  In fact, Johnny Cash recorded a much darker song in 1972 entitled Oney, about a bad boss.  Cash dedicates the song “to the working man/for every man that puts in a hard eight or 10 hours a day of work and toil and sweat/always got somebody looking down his neck/trying to get more out of him than he really ought to have to put in.”  You’ll have to listen to the song to find out what happens.
  3. Lack of Interest in professional development. This was the first-place tie with Reason #2. If employees don’t see opportunities for growth or a boss that doesn’t show an interest in their development, people will leave.

Knowing this is one thing.  Doing something about it is another.  If you’re interested in retaining your best performers, this might be the time to brush up on your management skills and get busy having regular career conversations with your people.  Even when it becomes an employer’s market for talent again, the best and brightest will always be in demand.

Don’t wait for your employees to give you an ultimatum.  Take some time this week to show some attention to your team.

And if you’re an employee, start taking some interest and control of your career development.  Engage your boss in a conversation and show some ownership.