# Take This Job and Shove It - meaning of the song **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** music\ **Created:** [September 1, 2025, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/take-this-job-and-shove-it-meaning-of-the-song/1022667 "2025-09-01T23:25:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2025, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/take-this-job-and-shove-it-meaning-of-the-song/1022667/1 "2025-09-01T23:25:56Z")
The song, most famously performed by Johnny Paycheck in 1977, was mentioned in another thread, which brought it to mind. Did the singer actually quit his job? Or does he just fantasize about quitting? The song starts out with > Take this job and shove it > I ain’t working here no more > My woman done left > And took all the reasons I was working for > You better not try to stand in my way > As I’m a-walking out the door That seems pretty definite that he has quit. But then the lyrics step back. The singer says he’s been working this job for fifteen years and his wife is unhappy. And he says he wishes he had the guts to say he was quitting. He complains about the job some more and then he makes it more explicit: > One of these days, I’m gonna blow my top > And that sucker, he’s gonna pay > Lord, I can’t wait to see their faces > When I get the nerve to say So it seems pretty clear he never actually quits. He just constantly fantasizes about quitting. Okay, I guess a lot of people fantasize about quitting a job they hate. But the singer has an unusual perspective on it. He doesn’t fantasize about winning the lottery. He fantasizes that he can finally quit because his wife has left him. So what is he really unhappy about? His job or his marriage? And which one is he really fantasizing about the end of? I think it’s his marriage that the singer really wants out of. And he’s just projecting that feeling on to his job because he doesn’t want to admit the truth to himself. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2025, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/take-this-job-and-shove-it-meaning-of-the-song/1022667/2 "2025-09-02T00:04:54Z")
As far as I can tell David Allan Coe, the guy who wrote the song, never held down a normal nine to five. His career track was essentially criminal to busker to musician/songwriter. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2025, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/take-this-job-and-shove-it-meaning-of-the-song/1022667/3 "2025-09-02T02:06:26Z")
Probably 90% of blue collar workers in 1977 sang the first two lines at least once. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2025, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/take-this-job-and-shove-it-meaning-of-the-song/1022667/4 "2025-09-02T02:22:54Z")
And turned into a Robert Hayes film ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2025, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/take-this-job-and-shove-it-meaning-of-the-song/1022667/5 "2025-09-02T04:04:39Z")
It’s your classic “stick it to the man” song. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2025, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/take-this-job-and-shove-it-meaning-of-the-song/1022667/6 "2025-09-02T04:14:43Z")
TIL that David Allen Coe wrote that song and not Johnny Paycheck. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2025, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/take-this-job-and-shove-it-meaning-of-the-song/1022667/7 "2025-09-02T13:37:52Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > It’s your classic “stick it to the man” song. Is it though? As I pointed out in the OP, the singer doesn’t actually quit his job. He just fantasizes about how he’d like to quit as he keeps working there year after year. This is a song about getting stuck by the man. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2025, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/take-this-job-and-shove-it-meaning-of-the-song/1022667/8 "2025-09-02T14:12:41Z")
That’s what’s cool about the song. Sort of like Springsteen’s _Born in the USA_, the real meaning and the popular perception of the meaning are polar opposites. Which raises the question of whether the songwriter intended that duality or has just run with it now that it’s happened. ---
**Author:** ![Kropotkin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kropotkin/32/18045_2.png) [@Kropotkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kropotkin)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2025, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/take-this-job-and-shove-it-meaning-of-the-song/1022667/9 "2025-09-02T16:06:36Z")
He “watched my woman drowning in a pool of tears” and has “seen a lot of good folks die that had a lot of bills to pay,” while “the foreman he’s a riggity dog, the line boss he’s a fool.” That he and his wife and their relationship suffered because of the job while others died at it seems to be some evidence that it is indeed his job he would like to leave but can’t. That his wife has finally left may mean he need no longer think of the both of them–a powerful but ultimately futile reason to keep the job–but he still hasn’t quit, suggesting he knows his opportunities are limited and he may well be stuck in an intolerable job. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2025, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/take-this-job-and-shove-it-meaning-of-the-song/1022667/10 "2025-09-02T16:41:36Z")
Credited with ending a miner’s strike [Tales from the Tour Bus excerpt](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=eJUMrENrNUc&pp=ygUidGFsZXMgZnJvbSB0aGUgYnVzIGpvaG5ueSBwYXljaGVjaw%253D%253D) ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2025, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/take-this-job-and-shove-it-meaning-of-the-song/1022667/11 "2025-09-02T19:24:36Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > TIL that David Allen Coe wrote that song and not Johnny Paycheck. But Paycheck recorded it and for whom it was a hit. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2025, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/take-this-job-and-shove-it-meaning-of-the-song/1022667/12 "2025-09-02T19:59:59Z")
> [@Kropotkin](#): > > while “the foreman he’s a riggity dog, the line boss he’s a fool.” This is the part that really chaps my ass. So many blue collar types think they know how to be a foreman or a manager. “I don’t need to collage edumacation.” They have no idea, but they imagine they do. Listen bub, if you could actually do the forman’s job, you would. They’d promote you. But they got you putting wheels on Cadillacs because that’s all you’re good at. ---
**Author:** ![Kropotkin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kropotkin/32/18045_2.png) [@Kropotkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kropotkin)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2025, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/take-this-job-and-shove-it-meaning-of-the-song/1022667/13 "2025-09-02T20:09:09Z")
Resenting and resisting authority does not require being better than the authority already in place. Given that car plants had tens of thousands of employees, how do you know those put in foremen and managerial jobs were all “better” than all the others on the line? Toadyism, nepotism, and similar “qualifications” may well have played their part as well. And we might remember there are 'way fewer foreman/manager jobs than production jobs, meaning not everyone who “could actually do the foreman’s job” would ever get promoted. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2025, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/take-this-job-and-shove-it-meaning-of-the-song/1022667/14 "2025-09-02T21:06:50Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > Listen bub, if you could actually do the forman’s job, you would. Sometimes that job is just kissing the boss’s ass or just always siding with management over labor. But, you’re right. Not everybody is cut out to be a stooge for the man.