Forty-six years ago, Johnny Paycheck released a song titled “Take This Job And Shove it.” It was his biggest hit, and as it usually happens with a song like this, it stands out to even non-fans for a reason. Specifically, in this case, it was because it hit home with many dissatisfied workers all across America.

This #1 song was written by David Allan Coe, and in 1981 it became the genesis for a movie of the same name. So, what was the song about?

The Song’s Backstory

It’s appropriate that David Allan Coe was born the day after Labor Day, on September 6, 1939, in that his biggest song is known as “The Working Man’s Anthem.”

The song tells the story of a man who’s grown tired of being underappreciated and overworked at his job and fantasizes what it would be like to tell his boss to “take this job and shove it.”

Coe is fabled to have penned the song in about five minutes. He pitched the song to George Jones who turned it down. As word of the song spread, Coe one day received a phone call from Johnny Paycheck (a country artist unknown to Coe) who asked for permission to record it. He  agreed and the song became a massive hit as well as Paycheck’s signature song. In fact, it was the only #1 record Johnny Paycheck ever had, spending a total of 18 weeks on the charts.

Even recently, the song has been heard on the Hannah Montana and Simpsons television shows.

Why Is Everyone Quitting?

As American workers quit their jobs in record numbers in 2021, the year is now known as the “Great Resignation.” Return To Office (RTO) directives post-pandemic is when it started, as many who found they could do their jobs just as well from home and were not interested in returning to the office. By the end of 2021, 47 million hospitality workers, the industry with the highest rate of quitters, would in essence tell their employers to “take this job and shove it.”

In 2022, American business owners were confronted with a new kind of quitting by their employees; quiet quitting. Quiet quitting is defined as people who do the minimum required and are psychologically detached from their job.

That reminds me of what we used to call “not my job” people, who had the attitude of doing the least they could get away with and still get a paycheck.

Quiet quitters are estimated to make up 50% of today’s workforce and that should be alarming to all employers.

Higher Education

College professors, who must have terminal college degrees (like a PhD), are finding their work environment very unsatisfying and 500,000 of them headed for the exits in 2022. Radio’s unhappy employees have a lot in common with people employed in higher education.

I will tell you why, in a moment.

Broadcasting

If you go to the website Careercast.com and look up the “Top Ten Worst Jobs in America,” you will find that #1 is being a Reporter, #6 is being a Broadcaster and #8 is being an Advertising Salesperson.

Back in 2019, Fred Jacobs wrote a blog article “Take This (Radio) Job And Shove It,” in which he cited Careercast.com data showing that broadcaster, DJ and ad sales rep held down the #7, #8, and #9 positions on the top ten worst jobs in America and apparently conditions are not improving for our industry. Poor pay would be bad enough, but a lack of job growth exacerbates attracting new talent.

            Job                   Growth Forecast

            Reporter                      -11%

            Broadcaster                -11%

            Ad Sales Rep               -6%

Why Are People Quitting Their Jobs?

We can’t begin to fix the problem, if we don’t clearly understand what the problem is, and you might be surprised to learn that no matter the job or industry, the reasons are strikingly similar.

• Feeling uncared for by their manager
• Tense relationships with colleagues and stress
• Poor compensation
• Lack of career advancement

The Solution

If you’ve worked in the radio business, you’ve no doubt heard something like “DJs are like spark plugs, if one doesn’t work, pull it out and replace it with a new one.” I’ve heard this sentiment attributed to many big box broadcast leaders over the years.

It might surprise you to learn that I found much the same attitude among higher education administrators when it came to their faculty.

College faculty and radio personalities are both instrumental when it comes to making a connection. For faculty, it’s between the student and the college, for the radio personality, it’s between the radio station and the listener.

Colleges like to stress the importance of student recruitment and retention. The radio industry  calls this building Cume (total radio station listening audience) and maintaining a high Time Spent Listening (TSL). Sadly, both miss the most important element in growing both of these metrics.

Colleges have been quick to “replace and replenish workers,” while radio stations have opted for voice tracking and syndication.

If you think this stuff doesn’t matter, think back to when the National Football League (NFL) discounted the issues their referees were complaining about, let them go out on strike while replacing them with less experienced refs. The NFL quickly learned that they had made a very bad decision as blown calls proliferated; players and fans expressed their outrage about how this bad decision hurt the game.

What all workers are seeking, is a place of work that gives them a sense of belonging, appreciation, and fulfillment, as well as insuring their success, productivity and growth. The Harvard Business Review (HBR) says that your employees are more productive and engaged when their four basic needs are met:

1. Renewal (physical)
2. Value (emotional)
3. Focus (mental)
4. Purpose (spiritual)

HBR says that “when employees at a company perceive that anyone of their four needs has been met, they report a 30% higher capacity to focus, a nearly 50% higher level of engagement, and a 63% greater likelihood to stay at the company.”

People don’t care how much you know,

Until they know how much you care.

-Theodore Roosevelt, President of the United States