I need to break up with my job, help me quit - with music.

April 15, 2010 3:35 PM

Help me come to terms with leaving my job - through music

I am almost determined to leave my job to start my own company. The thing is I like my job very much (I am planning on doing exactly the same, but on my own), just that in my current position:
a) I am overworked and underpaid. I could literally be earning much more money on my own doing what I'm doing right now
b) there's no room or oportunity for growth
c) I don't like the way things seem to be heading management-wise
d) I am tired of the politics (and not just the workplace politics; power politics so to speak, fwiw and whatever little, if any, power I may have in my position)

So, any way, I need to break up with my job. Figuratively, but still: I used to love it, now I like it, and don't want to end up hating it. I need to make up my mind to leave, and I am taking the same aproach that helped me leave previous, amorous, relationships: through music.

So, I need songs to ease the change.
So far I've got two:
Country feedback by R.E.M
A little respect by Erasure

Can you help me find more? No rap/hiphop/heavymetal songs, please. Just not my thing. Bonus points for Indie songs.

tl;dr: I need to break up with my job, help me quit - with music.

posted by omegar to work & money (43 answers total)

Slave to the Wage by Placebo played me out of my last career a few years ago. (loudly)
posted by merocet at 3:40 PM on April 15, 2010 [2 favorites]

Lost My Job by Alex Chilton always works for me.
posted by tamaraster at 3:44 PM on April 15, 2010

The Mountain Goats – No Children
posted by wemayfreeze at 3:48 PM on April 15, 2010

- Superchunk!!!!!

I'm working
But I'm not working for you!
No!
Slack Motherfucker!

From when mac worked at a local copy shop in chapel hill (copytron I think).

Still gives me chills even after 10 years.
posted by TheBones at 3:53 PM on April 15, 2010 [1 favorite]

Sorry, youtube link to the song
posted by TheBones at 3:53 PM on April 15, 2010

If you happen to like awesome country, try Waylon Jennings singing "I've Been a Long Time Gone". I'm thinking of a change myself, and it really hit me when I heard it last night.
posted by nosila at 4:06 PM on April 15, 2010 [1 favorite]

Minutemen - This Ain't No Picnic
posted by hydrophonic at 4:08 PM on April 15, 2010

Take This Job And Shove It (The Dead Kennedys version, of course)
posted by The World Famous at 4:11 PM on April 15, 2010 [1 favorite]

Blaggards - "Bog Songs"

Now take this bleedin' job of yours and shove it up your...
posted by gueneverey at 4:12 PM on April 15, 2010

Blind Melon- Change
Peter Bjorn and John - Just the past
Tears For Fears - Everybody wants to rule the world. The first two lines. Welcome to your life....there's no turning back.
posted by Plug1 at 4:13 PM on April 15, 2010

Judy Collins singing Bread and Roses

"... As we go marching, marching, unnumbered women dead
Go crying through our singing their ancient call for bread.
Small art and love and beauty their drudging spirits knew.
Yes, it is bread we fight for, but we fight for roses too. ..."

posted by paulsc at 4:14 PM on April 15, 2010

Ants Marching, by the Dave Matthews Band. Bloody brilliant.
posted by makethemost at 4:16 PM on April 15, 2010

"You load sixteen tons, what do you get
Another day older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store"
[Tennessee Earnie Ford's Sixteen Tons]

"You know they're all the same.
You know you're doing better on your own,
So don't buy in."
[Jimmy Eat World's The Middle]

"It's a thing that's worth having
- Yes I would
Buys you your life sir
- If it could
I, I want you
Autonomy"
[The Buzzcocks' Autonomy]

"Time is truly wastin'
There's no guarantee
Smile's in the makin'
You gotta fight the powers that be"
[The Isley Brothers' Fight the Power]
posted by Paragon at 4:20 PM on April 15, 2010

Peter Gabriel's "Solisbury Hill" is about his leaving Genesis.
posted by kirkaracha at 4:21 PM on April 15, 2010 [1 favorite]

Bob Dylan, Maggie's Farm.
posted by chicainthecity at 4:21 PM on April 15, 2010

Michael Jackson - Working Day and Night
posted by Jaltcoh at 4:22 PM on April 15, 2010

Fountains of Wayne - Hey Julie
posted by TurkishGolds at 4:24 PM on April 15, 2010

Old Man Luedecke - I Quit My Job.
posted by scruss at 4:28 PM on April 15, 2010

Todd Rundgren - Bang The Drum All Day
posted by deezil at 4:30 PM on April 15, 2010 [1 favorite]

Elvis Costello -- "Cheap Rewards"...

Lip service
Is all you'll ever get from me
Oh how could you believe I'd take you seriously
With your cheap rewards, your blackmail and your comical rage
Just remember you'll only be the boss as long as you pay my wage
posted by ZenMasterThis at 4:40 PM on April 15, 2010

try turn smile shift repeat by Phantom Planet.
posted by gursky at 5:11 PM on April 15, 2010

I once put together a whole CD of hate/apathy/quit-your-job songs. The ones I can remember off the top of my head:

The Kinks - Shangri-La
Emiliana Torrini - Unemployed In Summertime
Jimmy Reed - Big Boss Man
The Vogues - Five O' Clock World
Lee Dorsey - Workin' In A Coal Mine
Tennessee Ernie Ford - 16 Tons
The O'Jays - Living For The Weekend
posted by The Card Cheat at 5:13 PM on April 15, 2010

I was looking for a job and then I found a job. "heaven knows I'm miserable now". The Smiths
posted by Fiery Jack at 5:33 PM on April 15, 2010

Piss Factory - Patti Smith
posted by Fiery Jack at 5:35 PM on April 15, 2010

Ballad of Accounting - Ewan MacColl.

(I can never resist playlist questions!)
posted by Fiery Jack at 5:39 PM on April 15, 2010

Whistling in the Dark - Easterhouse
posted by Fiery Jack at 5:52 PM on April 15, 2010

easy.
posted by clearly at 6:05 PM on April 15, 2010

Best of You - Foo Fighters
posted by jennyhead at 6:11 PM on April 15, 2010

I think that I know the exact sentiment that you are feeling OP. I left my fulltime a little over a year ago and was sad when I left; I really liked my coworkers, my supervisor, and was frequently given great projects. I needed to spread my wings and try to work on my own business and do things the way that I envisioned…so it was a feeling of sadness when I left, plus a powerful feeling that I was going to determine my destiny. The following songs captured my sentiment when I was in this same situation:

Its my life by Talk Talk

Leaving New York by REM (okay it is about a city, but the sensation was the same…leaving something that you love; I listened to this several times after I left my job)

Nthing kirkaracha’s suggestion, Solisbury Hill – definitely captures that sensation

I'm Free (wish I could find a better video but going for the lyrics)

And for the future to motivate you so that you never have to return to a workplace, Patty Larkin’s Wolf at the Door (if you don’t succeed, the wolf may eat you….keep afloat, dont drown, and create the job and life you envision.)

By the way, congrats
posted by Wolfster at 6:13 PM on April 15, 2010

Going Down the Road Feeling Bad - Grateful Dead version (although it's been done by many)
posted by nonliteral at 6:16 PM on April 15, 2010

Directly on point:
Talk Talk, seconding It's My Life but you also need Life's What You Make It
Royksopp - Beautiful Day Without You
Editors - An End Has a Start

If you think that you would be the first one out the door and others would follow, try Kaiser Chiefs - I Predict a Riot

For the indecisive, try Armin van Buuren's Going Wrong "And I will live today, and I will live tomorrow, no matter what is said or done, even if it's going wrong"

For shits and giggles - Run this town (Jay-Z with Rihanna).

Finally, once free, check out my freedom playlist thread. On top of the suggestions in that thread, I added:
Deep Dish version of Fleetwood Mac's Dreams
Twisted Sister - We're Not Gonna Take It
Nancy Sinatra - These Boots Were Made For Walking
Pearl Jam - Rearviewmirror
posted by crazycanuck at 6:39 PM on April 15, 2010

Not a perfect match but it's the song I would be singing: You Don't Know by Reel Big Fish.

"Well first of all, I'd like to say..."
posted by beandip at 6:51 PM on April 15, 2010

Sam Cooke: Chain Gang
Woody Guthrie - John Henry
Merle Travis - Nine Pound Hammer
Mississippi John Hurt - Spike Driver Blues
Leadbelly - Take this hammer

And under the theme of leaving a bad situation for a much better:
Guy Clark - LA Freeway
Guy Clark - Boats to Build
posted by Tuesday After Lunch at 7:28 PM on April 15, 2010

Coroprate slave by Snog
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 7:38 PM on April 15, 2010

I play this song for my co-workers at every job: They Might Be Giants, "Minimum Wage."

And, while not directly work-related, The Clash's cover of "I Fought the Law" has sustained me through many an overtime session. For best results, set volume to maximum.
posted by kirkaracha at 8:00 PM on April 15, 2010

Frankly Mr. Shankley, The Smiths:

Frankly Mr. Shankley, this position I hold
It pays my way and it corrodes my soul
posted by croutonsupafreak at 8:38 PM on April 15, 2010

Fleetwood Mac's "Don't Stop" isn't a trite answer if you use the version with the USC Marching Band.
posted by gnomeloaf at 9:05 PM on April 15, 2010

nthing the Mountain Goats' No Children.
posted by togdon at 9:19 PM on April 15, 2010

Superchunk! Oh lord yes. Also Soul Suckin' Jerk by Beck is both hilarious and apt.

Also, Fake it by Metafilter's own frenetic jived me into quit mode last year.
posted by freya_lamb at 6:06 AM on April 16, 2010

Dear Sara Shu by John Vanderslice.

"Picture me locking the office door, now/Kneeling down on the floor/Screaming: “Protection, I can make it, I can make it!”

This will not only give your feet wings, you'll feel your heart give you a high-five on your way out the door.
posted by 1f2frfbf at 8:36 AM on April 16, 2010

Renegade by Kings of Convenience.

Yes it's about a romantic relationship. But "Go easy on me / I can't help what I'm doing" seems apropos.
posted by onell at 8:50 AM on April 16, 2010

Gee, thanks, guys, I was going to mark almost every single one as best answer. I'll have to give a good listen to some of this stuff.
Many thanks again.
posted by omegar at 9:00 AM on April 16, 2010

Happy Prole - Quasi
posted by grapesaresour at 7:10 PM on April 16, 2010