Songs About Shitty Jobs / Hating Your Boss

Piss Factory - Patti Smith - "Forty hours thirty-six dollars a week
But it's a paycheck, Jack."

Well, this man's about to drive me stone insane
One of these days I'm gonna have a fit
& though the boss keeps a-runnin' through my brain
I'll never (never) (never) (never) (never never quit my brand new job)
Workin' all day & workin' all night & workin' all day

With bonus redundancy themes!

http://www.artofthemix.com/FindAMix/GetContents.asp?strMixID=57147

And of course the classic 'Echo Beach': "From 9 to 5 I have to spend my time at work / My job is very boring I'm an office clerk."

Up every mornin’ just to keep my job
I gotta fight my way through the hustling mob
Sounds of the city poundin’ in my brain
While another day goes down the drain (yeah, yeah)

But it’s a five o’clock world when the whistle blows
No one owns a piece of my time
And there’s a five o’clock me inside my clothes
Thinkin’ that the world looks fine, yeah

"Earn Enough for Us" by XTC (`cos Andy's still weathering "hurtful comments from the boss" and withstanding "humiliation").

"Dead End Job" by the Police

'wave b-b-b-bye to the boss, it's our profit, it's his loss'

EOT

thee

"You're beautiful!
And your boss is an asshole!
And I don't give a shit what the dick thinks
We will survive!"

jimmy reed (and sundry others) - "big boss man"

Well I get up at 7 and I go to work at 9
Got no time for livin' cos I'm working all the time
Seems to me I could live my life a lot better then I think I am
I guess that's why they call me the working man
Well they call me the working man
I guess that's what I am

Also : King Missile - "Take Stuff From Work"

"all life we work but work is a bore / if life's for livin', what's livin' for?"

"I used ta have a good job, a steady nine-to-five-workin'-twenty-four-seven all the three-sixty-five, but I got sick of breakin' back for only three-twenty-five. LORD KNOWS that ain't enuff ta keep a man alive, I GET GONE!"

Working all day for a mean little guy
With a bad toupee and a spot-stained tie
He's got me running 'round the office
Like a gerbil on a wheel
He can tell me what to do
But he can't tell me what to feel

Well I guess they know
That I'm not no company man
But I can pull on a rope
And kill a cow
As well as any other fucker can

Actually I think that Steve Albini went to art college rather than working in a slaughterhouse, but maybe he knew someone that did.

General Strike by D.O.fuckin'A.

This is a song about power,
the power that you and I have in our hands.
The power of the people.
`Cause you know all over this world,
people finally get it together,
get the courage together,
they use the general strike.
It's one of the strongest things they got.
In Eastern Europe, Central America, in North America,
believe it or not,
cause it's power to the people.
Come on!

We're tired, yeah tired of working'
We're tired of working, yeah working for nothing
We all want, what we got coming
All we need is a break
Come on, make no mistake

Everything is not all right
And there's no end in sight
You can call it what you like
Come on, stand up for your rights

(Chorus)
Stand up, stand and unite
It's time for a general strike
Stand up, stand and unite
It's time for a general strike

We been out breaking our backs
Been out working, getting no slack
All week long just paying those bills
That's just the people that still got a job
What about the rest of us - on the soupline

(Chorus)
Stand up, stand and unite
It's time for a general strike
Stand up, stand and unite
It's time for a general strike

Everything is not all right
And there's no end in sight
You can call it wht you like
Come on stand up for your rights

(Chorus)
Stand up, stand and unite
It's time for a general strike
Stand up, stand and unite
It's time for a general strike

A great pop song that isn't necessarily about hating you're job, but it does have the "when I get off work everything's gonna be fine cuz I got me a great girl" theme.

"Lottery" by the Asskickers

"I'm working my job while I write this song
The pay ain't good and the day is long
They're takin' away my life and it just ain't right
I gotta be strong and bite my tongue
I wanna soar 'em the bird and say 'So long ...
I'm gone ... and fuck your job'

But if I won the lottery
I'll tell you what I'd do
I'd tell my boss to go to hell
Then drive straight home to you

I wasn't made to work this hard
But I guess for me it's just in the cards
I'm a pawn in a losing game

My boss he's a regular S.O.B.
He's trying to take my soul from me
He's an asshole, drives me insane

But if I won the lottery
I know just what I'd do
I'd buy this place and fire my boss
Then drive straight home to you.

This place has gotten under my skin
I hate the smell when I walk in
It's a dump! It's a real shit hole

It's run by a bunch of idiots
Who make up the rules and don't know shit
It's a joke ... and it's on me

But if I won the lottery
I know just what I'd do
I'd buy this place and burn it down
And drive straight home to you."

->

Parking Valet - The Auteurs

"you're all part of the same old fucking regime
with someone taking out
whilst you were putting it in (it in)"

or there's chartsengrafs by grandaddy
"yeah i traded laughs
in for chartsengrafs"

or no surprises by radiohead
"a job that slowly kills you"
"i'll take a quiet life a handshake of carbon monoxide"

or sleepyhead by ed harcourt
"I'm a sleepyhead, I'm always tired
I'm a sleepyhead, with no desire
To face the same old day
Go to the same old place
And yawn, there and back again"

and i have to concur with nine to five by dolly parton and frankly mr shankly by the smiths as excellent examples.

"...Office coffee's awful but
Donuts and coffee fill your gut
Till pants you bought so loosely cut
Strain to contain your office butt"
etc.

Do the five day grind once more
Know of nothing else that bugs me
More than working for the rich man
Hey I'll change that scene one day
Today I might be mad
Tomorrow I'll be glad
Coz I got Friday on my mind

I just found that on a tape when looking for something else, and was going to post it here. Damn.

i want to have a rich man
take him just short of death
wire up the nerve endings
of this marrionette of flesh
fetch my papers deadman
and slip my slippers on
watch these hands you dont own
like ive watched mine before

She wants to kill a rich man
yeh lets play like the romans
she wants to kill a rich man
and donate all his organs

peel open his back
establish headquarters to the pain
find somethin' simple
make 'im do it again and again

i want to kill a rich man
put his head on a plate
god I'm gettin sick now
must've beem something i ate.

i got two other workin class songs if you want them

I been doodlin' on this notepad
And I been takin' telephone calls
I can tell this job's at the end of the line
And I'm ready for the fall
But I been watchin' the boss carefully
and he always seems to be havin' a ball
And then I scratch my head and wonder
Why I'm down here and he's up the hall...

("F** You Middle-management Wanker")

available as an mp3 at http://micromusic.net and recently released as a 7" on Shitkatapult.